Programs Chief Procurement Officers Forum

Since 2023, Nicholas Lanigan has led the Sourcing and Procurement goals and strategy for Cox Automotive, Cox Communications and Cox Enterprises. As Vice President, Nicholas is responsible for building and maintaining a world-class supply chain, and delivering on the company’s financial performance, while adhering to the highest level of customer service and compliance.

Nicholas brings a wealth of experience from his previous leadership roles as the Chief Procurement & Supply Chain Officer at Panasonic Avionics, as the Vice President, Global Procurement, Contracts & Compliance at Conduent, a global leader in business process outsourcing solutions, and as the Head of Global Procurement, Pricing and Contracts at Xerox Corporation.

Nicholas holds an MBA and a Juris Doctor from the University of Connecticut and is a member of the Connecticut Bar. He is married with three young boys. In his spare time, he enjoys playing sports with his children, running, and traveling with his family.

Drew Misher is the Vice President of Procurement for PENN Entertainment, Inc.

Mr. Misher is responsible for PENN’s Procurement Operations including Strategic Sourcing, eProcurement as well as property purchasing and warehouse. Mr. Misher also plays an active role in managing PENN’s Supplier Diversity program.

Prior to joining PENN in 2017, Mr. Misher worked in procurement for 20 years across various industries including pharmaceuticals, banking/finance and the public sector. He has considerable experience in developing national and global procurement organizations and transitioning the function into a high performing value-added operation.

Drew was born and raised outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and received his Bachelor of the Arts in International Relations from The College of William and Mary where he was a member of the Division 1 Varsity Soccer Team. He also received his Master of Business Administration from Temple University. He resides in Villanova, PA with his wife and three children.

Kimberly is a professional Procurement and Supplier Relationship Management executive with 20+years of global experience working for Fortune 100 companies like JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, CNA Insurance, Reed Elsevier and currently Nationwide Insurance. Her focus is enabling digital transformation and advancing automation within Procurement, leveraging data to create transparency to better inform our business, designing and implementing Procure2 Pay technologies, establishing third-party risk programs, advancing competitive advantage through strengthened supplier partnerships, while ensuring that diverse suppliers play a role in our supply chain strategy.

Currently, she leads the Nationwide Insurance Procurement Strategic Sourcing organization.However, led the Procurement Shared Services function prior to assuming responsibility for the Sourcing organization.

Chief Procurement Officers Forum

Sarfraz Nawaz is Vice President, Supply Chain, for RTX. In this position, Nawaz is responsible for the company’s global supply chain activities across all RTX businesses (Collins Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney and Raytheon), including advancing ongoing Supply Chain transformation efforts, focusing on talent development as well as tools and process improvement. He also leads supply chain activities that drive supplier performance and cost reduction.

Nawaz previously served as Vice President, Global Operations & Systems (GOS) for Collins Aerospace. In his 24-year tenure, he has held various leadership positions within RTX (previously United Technologies Corporation) including, Vice President, Supply Chain for Collins Aerospace, Vice President, Operations, in the Asia Pacific, for UTC Aerospace Systems, Commodity Manager for Carrier, Director, Global Sourcing, for Hamilton Sundstrand and Director, Supply Chain, Global Fire Products for UTC Fire & Security.

Nawaz holds a master’s degree in business administration from Syracuse University and a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Birla Institute of Technology and Science in India.

Ellen leads an organization of 100+ employees that provide the Planning and Logistics support for AT&T’s Consumer Mobility operations. Ellen has responsibility for the Strategy and Execution of Demand and Supply Planning, Inventory Procurement and Management, Distribution Center and Transportation Logistics, Retail and Customer Order Fulfillment, and Recovery and Reverse Logistics – both through internal operations and external vendor management.

In Ellen’s sixteen-year career at AT&T she has experienced a diverse set of roles – having held ten different positions at four levels of management across five business units. The majority of Ellen’s contributions have been in Supply Chain, with experience across Network Mobility, Network Wireline, Consumer Broadband, and currently Consumer Mobility.

Ellen is a graduate of AT&T’s Leadership Development Program. And AT&T has recognized her as a champion of customer service, awarded twice with the corporate Service Excellence Award. Ellen also has a passion for community service. She is in an active leader within the AT&T Employee Group – FACES, Filipino-American Communication Employees. She was recognized as an AT&T Champion of Diversity in 2015, awarded by the Chief Diversity Officer for her work in supporting AT&T’s diversity and inclusion values.

Ellen holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. She also studied Business and Economics at the Universiteit Maastricht in the Netherlands, where she discovered her love of travelling.

Dan Edwads has been the Vice President of Direct Procurement since August 2022. He joined Trane Technologies (Formerly Ingersoll Rand) in 2002 and has over 15 years experience in strategic sourcing and category management.

Prior to joining Trane Technologies, Dan worked with FreeMarkets and Authur Andersen LLP, both located in Pittsburgh, PA. Dan holds an NMBA from Indiana University, as well as a Master of Science in Public Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon. University and a BA in Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh.

Tom Lutz joined U.S. Bancorp as Senior Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer in April 2008. He has been responsible for strategic sourcing, acquisitions, and supplier diversity. Since joining U.S. Bancorp 15 years ago, Tom has focused on delivering significantly greater value across the enterprise through more effective internal alignment, risk management, improved vendor relationships, strategic talent management, and a shareholder-centric view of operating costs and business practices.

Tom has thirty eight years of experience in the areas of procurement, supply chain management, and information systems. Tom serves as board member of the National Minority Supplier Development Council effective. Prior to joining U.S. Bank, Tom spent twenty years with General Mills in a variety of roles, and three years with Pulte Homes as national vice president of procurement. Tom currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees for Bethlehem College & Seminary.

Tom is a native of Minnesota, and received a bachelor’s degree in business and systems analysis from Taylor University in Upland, Indiana. Tom and his wife Heather have six children and three grandchildren.

Barbara Kubicki-Hicks is a seasoned executive with over 25 years’ experience in supply chain management and global procurement operations in the financial services industry. She is the chief procurement officer at Well Fargo, responsible for leading Supply Chain Management, which is comprised of strategic sourcing, procure-to-pay, supplier diversity, and

third-party risk management functions. Her team executes end-to-end supply chain activities and third-party initiatives that align with business priorities and leads strategic, enterprise-wide programs with focus on third- party expense optimization.

Previously, Barb was a senior procurement executive at Bank of America responsible for end-to-end procurement, associated risk management and third party program adherence for all eight lines of business, and led a procurement transformation initiative to simplify the end-to-end third- party process, reduce connections, restructure roles to gain economies of scale, and replace current technology solutions.

Barb serves on the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council’s Board of Directors and Executive Committee as board chairperson. During her 10- year tenure on the WBENC Board of Directors, she was also Corporate Membership and Revenue Generation Committee chairperson, co- chairperson of the Strategic Planning Resources Committee, and active member of the Marketing Committee.

Over the course of her career, Barb has held a variety of supply chain management, procurement, and technology roles with a proven track record for developing procurement professionals, delivering consistent results by balancing business needs, risk and value, as well as leading business transformation enabled by technology.

Chief Procurement Officers Forum

Charles White leads the Procurement group at Nationwide covering all source to pay functions, corporate travel, supplier diversity and risk management. Charles has over two decades of experience in diverse sectors including, financial services, high tech, and consumer electronics manufacturing. He has covered a wide range of direct and indirect categories while working for some of the largest companies in the Technology and Financial Services. He recently joined Nationwide in December 2018 from Charles Schwab and prior to that was with Fidelity, Deutsche Bank and Microsoft. He is a US Navy Veteran and former aircraft carrier based jet pilot. He graduated from Oregon State University with a Bachelor of Science in Biology.

Amit Arya is the Founder and CEO of Stratacent, a Global IT Consulting and Services firm, catering to Fortune 500 enterprise customers in their Digital Transformation journey by delivering a full portfolio of services that include Data and Analytics, Cloud Services, Automation, IT Service Management, Cyber Security and Application Development.

He spearheaded Stratacent’s expansion in the US, UK, Canada, and India. This strategic expansion has allowed the company to extend its capability to deliver projects and tap into new markets, contributing to our fast growth and recognized as one of the fastest growing Asian American companies.

Kevin G. O’Brien was recently named the SVP, IT Chief Financial Officer, Chief Procurement Officer and the Business Transformation Office Leader. Kevin brings more than 30 years of financial experience and a proven track record of helping businesses achieve their strategic priorities. Kevin’s experience in activating business strategies, contract negotiations, identifying creative and financially sound growth and expansion opportunities, along with his leadership and talent development skills, make him ideally positioned for this role.

Kevin began his career with Nationwide in 1998 and has served in many different roles within Finance including Investor Relations, CFO for Individual Protection, Strategy & Capital Management, CFO for Retirement Plans and most recently leading the Mergers & Acquisitions team. .

Prior to joining Nationwide, Kevin worked at Hartford Life and attained his Certified Public Accountant (CPA) designation while working at KPMG in Springfield, MA.

Kevin earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Management with an Accounting Concentration from Westfield State University. He has four daughters and lives in Westerville with his better half, Denise, where he serves on the Olentangy Local Schools’ Board of Education.

James Haddow is Director of the Center for Excellence in Supply Chain Management (CESUM) and a professor in the School of Business at Howard University in Washington DC. Currently, Mr. Haddow teaches a range of supply chain management courses to both undergraduate and graduate level students. He also supports students as faculty advisor during supply chain case competitions and participates in various CESCM activities (e.g., SCM Think Tanks, Corporate Advisory Board, Site Visits, Workshops, etc.). Mr. Haddow has made supply chain presentations at ISM, IMC, APICS, PMAC and other Global industry conferences. Mr. Haddow has previously held positions as Director of Global Procurement (Chief Procurement Officer) and a Supply Chain consultant for A.T. Kearney a global consulting firm, Cost and Financial Analyst at the Interstate Commerce Commission and Safeway Stores, Inc. His 30 years of consulting and industry experience encompass global procurement, supply chain management, business planning and commercial business development which provides hands-on teaching examples for his students.

Tanya Penny is a strategy and finance executive with an extensive track record across critical functions in the Fortune 50 realm. Penny held positions as Chief Procurement Officer at Verizon, with over $35 billion in spend and Senior Vice President of Real Estate, controlling a $2B budget and 3,000+ staff.

As President/CEO of TPW & Associates, a strategy consulting firm advising clients on financial and business performance, Penny continues to design and lead high-impact business transformation projects.

Penny serves on the advisory board of Ampcus, Inc., Ivy Community Charities, and leads the Board of Directors for the Redda Group.

Kindle Goodson currently serves as the Chief Procurement Officer leading the Global Supplier Services team responsible for the End-to End Procure to Pay process inclusive of Sourcing, Enterprise Vendor Risk, Procurement, Metrics, and Business Diversity. In this capacity, Kindle brings over 20 years of experience, 17 of which are in the financial services industry, working for several Fortune 100 companies.

In 2010, Kindle began her career at TIAA, initially responsible for the procurement of Printed Materials and Marketing Services. Since that time, in addition to her expanded roles in Sourcing, Kindle also served as the Business Finance Officer for TIAA’s Corporate Functions responsible for the fiscal budgeting process for Legal Risk & Compliance, Internal Audit Services, Human Resources, Chief Administrative Office, and Office of the CFO.

Kindle began her career at Navigant Consulting, where she worked to

assess Companies’ risk of insolvency. Given education has always been paramount, Kindle decided to return to school to pursue her MBA. During this time, she also worked at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in Procurement and Acquisition Management.

Upon graduating with honors, Kindle moved to New York City, where she was accepted into the Management Associate Program at Citigroup, working in Acquisition Life Cycle Marketing for Card products. While at Citigroup, Kindle was approached by Bank of America and asked to join their Supply Chain Management organization. Excited about the opportunity, Kindle relocated to Charlotte, NC and became responsible for the sourcing of Data Aggregation and later all printed materials.

During her tenure there, she also worked on several mergers and acquisitions (MBNA, LaSalle, Countrywide, and Merrill Lynch) which positioned her to transition to TIAA.

Kindle has a B.B.A. in Business Insurance and a M.B.A., concentrating in Supply Chain Mgmt. from Howard University. She is also Six Sigma Green and White Belt certified. Kindle lives in Charlotte, NC with her husband and three children; 2 sons and 1 daughter.

Barbara Kubicki-Hicks is a seasoned executive with over 25 years’ experience in supply chain management and global procurement operations in the financial services industry. She is the chief procurement officer at Well Fargo, responsible for leading Supply Chain Management, which is comprised of strategic sourcing, procure-to-pay, supplier diversity, and

third-party risk management functions. Her team executes end-to-end supply chain activities and third-party initiatives that align with business priorities and leads strategic, enterprise-wide programs with focus on third- party expense optimization.

Previously, Barb was a senior procurement executive at Bank of America responsible for end-to-end procurement, associated risk management and third party program adherence for all eight lines of business, and led a procurement transformation initiative to simplify the end-to-end third- party process, reduce connections, restructure roles to gain economies of scale, and replace current technology solutions.

Barb serves on the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council’s Board of Directors and Executive Committee as board chairperson. During her 10- year tenure on the WBENC Board of Directors, she was also Corporate Membership and Revenue Generation Committee chairperson, co- chairperson of the Strategic Planning Resources Committee, and active member of the Marketing Committee.

Over the course of her career, Barb has held a variety of supply chain management, procurement, and technology roles with a proven track record for developing procurement professionals, delivering consistent results by balancing business needs, risk and value, as well as leading business transformation enabled by technology.

Wassel Lewis is vice president of Strategic Sourcing and Procurement and manages approximately $1.2 billion in spend. He is responsible for: Category Management, Strategic Sourcing, Procurement Ops, Procurement Administration, Supplier Relationship Management, Performance Management and Supplier Diversity.

Wassel joined Aflac in 2007 as senior project consultant in the Enterprise Project Office. During his career at Aflac he served in IT-PMO, and Strategic Partnerships before joining Strategic Sourcing and Procurement.

Wassel earned a bachelor’s degree from Howard University and a Master of Business Administration from Southern Methodist University.

Mark has more than 20 years of procurement and operations experience in various industries, including telecommunications, retail and media and entertainment.

His responsibilities at Windstream include leadership of the procurement function, managing more than $1 billion in annual spend, the supply chain organization, corporate real estate, fleet and facilities. He joined Windstream from Alix Partners where he led large cost reduction and capability building engagements for publicly and privately-held companies.

Prior to working at Alix Partners, Mark served as AARP’s first Chief Procurement Officer where he transformed a purchasing organization into a true procurement function that leveraged category management, annual sourcing plans and common-sense policies and processes that balanced the need for speed and efficiency in business operations with appropriate competitive bid thresholds and controls.

Earlier in his career, Mark was VP of Procurement and Business Services at L Brands, owners of Victoria’s Secret and Bath and Body Works, where he led a global procurement team managing over $1 billion in annual expenditures. He also served as a Director of Strategic Sourcing for C&S Wholesale Grocers, a $20 billion privately-held company, where he built the non-merchandise procurement department from the ground up.

Out of business school, Mark was a procurement and supply chain consultant at Accenture and Capgemini Ernst and Young, where he helped companies like Time Warner and 7-11 implement centralized procurement organizations, e-procurement technologies, sourcing processes and cost management programs.

Mark has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Prior to graduate school, he served on active duty as a Naval Intelligence Officer.

Chief Procurement Officers Forum

Charles White leads the Procurement group at Nationwide covering all source to pay functions, corporate travel, supplier diversity and risk management. Charles has over two decades of experience in diverse sectors including, financial services, high tech, and consumer electronics manufacturing. He has covered a wide range of direct and indirect categories while working for some of the largest companies in the Technology and Financial Services. He recently joined Nationwide in December 2018 from Charles Schwab and prior to that was with Fidelity, Deutsche Bank and Microsoft. He is a US Navy Veteran and former aircraft carrier based jet pilot. He graduated from Oregon State University with a Bachelor of Science in Biology.

Kevin G. O’Brien was recently named the SVP, IT Chief Financial Officer, Chief Procurement Officer and the Business Transformation Office Leader. Kevin brings more than 30 years of financial experience and a proven track record of helping businesses achieve their strategic priorities. Kevin’s experience in activating business strategies, contract negotiations, identifying creative and financially sound growth and expansion opportunities, along with his leadership and talent development skills, make him ideally positioned for this role.

Kevin began his career with Nationwide in 1998 and has served in many different roles within Finance including Investor Relations, CFO for Individual Protection, Strategy & Capital Management, CFO for Retirement Plans and most recently leading the Mergers & Acquisitions team. .

Prior to joining Nationwide, Kevin worked at Hartford Life and attained his Certified Public Accountant (CPA) designation while working at KPMG in Springfield, MA.

Kevin earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Management with an Accounting Concentration from Westfield State University. He has four daughters and lives in Westerville with his better half, Denise, where he serves on the Olentangy Local Schools’ Board of Education.

Chief Procurement Officers Forum

Charles White leads the Procurement group at Nationwide covering all source to pay functions, corporate travel, supplier diversity and risk management. Charles has over two decades of experience in diverse sectors including, financial services, high tech, and consumer electronics manufacturing. He has covered a wide range of direct and indirect categories while working for some of the largest companies in the Technology and Financial Services. He recently joined Nationwide in December 2018 from Charles Schwab and prior to that was with Fidelity, Deutsche Bank and Microsoft. He is a US Navy Veteran and former aircraft carrier based jet pilot. He graduated from Oregon State University with a Bachelor of Science in Biology.

Mark has more than 20 years of procurement and operations experience in various industries, including telecommunications, retail and media and entertainment.

His responsibilities at Windstream include leadership of the procurement function, managing more than $1 billion in annual spend, the supply chain organization, corporate real estate, fleet and facilities. He joined Windstream from Alix Partners where he led large cost reduction and capability building engagements for publicly and privately-held companies.

Prior to working at Alix Partners, Mark served as AARP’s first Chief Procurement Officer where he transformed a purchasing organization into a true procurement function that leveraged category management, annual sourcing plans and common-sense policies and processes that balanced the need for speed and efficiency in business operations with appropriate competitive bid thresholds and controls.

Earlier in his career, Mark was VP of Procurement and Business Services at L Brands, owners of Victoria’s Secret and Bath and Body Works, where he led a global procurement team managing over $1 billion in annual expenditures. He also served as a Director of Strategic Sourcing for C&S Wholesale Grocers, a $20 billion privately-held company, where he built the non-merchandise procurement department from the ground up.

Out of business school, Mark was a procurement and supply chain consultant at Accenture and Capgemini Ernst and Young, where he helped companies like Time Warner and 7-11 implement centralized procurement organizations, e-procurement technologies, sourcing processes and cost management programs.

Mark has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Prior to graduate school, he served on active duty as a Naval Intelligence Officer.

Rachel Kutz, VP – Consumer Supply Chain & Global Logistics, is responsible for leading an organization of over 1100 diverse employees dedicated to innovative solutions that provide AT&T’s customers with connected products and services. In this role she assumes ownership for all AT&T’s logistics, supplier quality control, planning, and replenishment of AT&T’s consumer and business products and equipment such as mobile devices, tablets, video, and broadband gateways. Rachel also maintains ownership of two critical enterprise-wide programs: supplier diversity and sustainability, responsibilities from her previous role as VP – Strategic Initiatives.

As VP - Strategic Initiatives, Rachel set the overall supply chain strategy for purchasing operations and supply chain systems and tools to improve the efficiency of AT&T processes using data analytics and automation. She has prior experience in logistics support for consumer products from her prior role as AVP of Product Logistics and Quality where she led teams managing forward/reverse logistics and product quality. Rachel has also lead teams responsible for managing supplier and product selection, pricing, inventory and supply planning, procurement, and quality control for AT&T consumer products.

Rachel is an engaging, insightful and decisive leader who uses good communication skills to adapt to any situation. She joined AT&T as a wireless network radio frequency (RF) performance engineer and rapidly rose to Executive Director, Wireless Network of AT&T’s HQ market. In her progressive roles in AT&T’s wireless network organization, she successfully dealt with state and local governments resolving cell site zoning and RF spectrum issues. Rachel designed smarter cell site building plans that expanded networks and enabled local sales teams to more effectively market products and reduce customer churn.

Rachel has lived and worked in many markets and cities (Detroit, Chicago, Colorado, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, New Mexico, Nevada and Georgia), and has invaluable local and regional perspective, as well as adaptive problem-solving experience.

Although she lives in Texas, Rachel calls Colorado home. She graduated from the University of Colorado – Boulder with a degree in Astrophysics (obviously to create better ski jumps through math and science) but cooking and tennis are the only things she loves as much as work.

Wassel Lewis is vice president of Strategic Sourcing and Procurement and manages approximately $1.2 billion in spend. He is responsible for: Category Management, Strategic Sourcing, Procurement Ops, Procurement Administration, Supplier Relationship Management, Performance Management and Supplier Diversity.

Wassel joined Aflac in 2007 as senior project consultant in the Enterprise Project Office. During his career at Aflac he served in IT-PMO, and Strategic Partnerships before joining Strategic Sourcing and Procurement.

Wassel earned a bachelor’s degree from Howard University and a Master of Business Administration from Southern Methodist University.

Dr. Wayne A. I. Frederick was appointed the seventeenth president of Howard University in 2014. He previously served as Provost and Chief Academic Officer. Most recently, the Howard University Board of Trustees selected Dr. Frederick to serve as the distinguished Charles R. Drew Professor of Surgery.

A distinguished scholar and administrator, Dr. Frederick has advanced Howard University's commitment to student opportunity, academic innovation, public service, and fiscal stability. Early in his tenure as president, Dr. Frederick pursued initiatives to streamline and strengthen university operations. He has overseen a series of reform efforts, including the expansion of academic offerings, establishing innovative programs to support student success and the modernization of university facilities.

As an undergraduate, Dr. Frederick was admitted to Howard University's B.S./M.D. dual degree program. He completed the requirements for both degrees in six years, allowing him to earn his Bachelor of Science degree and his medical degree by the age of 22. He also earned a Master of Business Administration from Howard University's School of Business in 2011.

Following his post-doctoral research and surgical oncology fellowships at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Dr. Frederick began his academic career as associate director of the Cancer Center at the University of Connecticut. Upon his return to Howard University, his academic positions included associate dean in the College of Medicine, division chief in the Department of Surgery, director of the Cancer Center and deputy provost for Health Sciences.

Dr. Frederick is the author of numerous peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, abstracts, and editorials and is a widely recognized expert on disparities in healthcare and medical education. He continues to operate and also gives lectures to second-year medical students and surgical residents of Howard University's College of Medicine. His medical research focuses on narrowing racial, ethnic, and gender disparities in cancer-care outcomes, especially about gastrointestinal cancers. Dr. Frederick also devotes his time to writing and speaking on salient topics in higher education including the impact of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, campus intellectual diversity, the underrepresentation of African American men in medical school, and gender equity on college campuses.

Dr. Frederick has received various awards honoring his scholarship and service. In April 2020, Dr. Frederick was chosen as the first-ever recipient of the Educator Award by the Lowell F. Hawthorne Foundation, Inc. Last year, Dr. Frederick was honored with the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center for his contributions to the medical field. In January 2017, the Federal Reserve System Board of Governors elected Dr. Frederick to the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. He was presented with the Diaspora Public Diplomacy Leadership Award by the Embassy of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago for his contributions to strengthening Trinidad and Tobago-United States bilateral relations through excellence in global educational leadership. In 2015, Dr. Frederick was also recognized by the then president of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago for his appointment as President of Howard University. Most recently, Dr. Frederick was appointed to the Board of Directors of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Humana Inc. Dr. Frederick is a member of surgical and medical associations, including the American Surgical Association and the American College of Surgeons.

Dr. Frederick has also been featured as one of "America's Best Physicians" by Black Enterprise magazine. He was named one of EBONY magazine's "Power 100," and recognized as a "Super Doctor" in The Washington Post Magazine. In 2017, he was named "Washingtonian of the Year" by Washingtonian magazine and in 2015 was named "Male President of the Year" by HBCU Digest and was inducted into the St. Mary's College, Port of Spain, Trinidad Hall of Fame.

Dr. Frederick resides in Washington D.C. with his wife, Simone, and their two children, Kirie and Wayne II. He is a true son of Howard University—a proud and loyal exemplar of its motto: Truth and Service.

Dr. Anthony Wilbon's expertise is in strategic technology management. He is also a certified Project Management Professional (PMP). Particular areas of research include technology strategy, quantitative analysis, information technology, and technology innovation and entrepreneurship. Research in sustainable environmental engineering through the integration of social, environmental, and economic considerations into systems design methods has also been explored through funded NOAA research projects. Dr. Wilbon has previously held positions at organizations such as the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and Booz Allen and Hamilton. His professional experience and capabilities extend to business, management, and technology related topics including systems application and technology, production and operations management, project management, systems development life cycle, and research methodology (quantitative and qualitative).

James Haddow is Director of the Center for Excellence in Supply Chain Management (CESUM) and a professor in the School of Business at Howard University in Washington DC. Currently, Mr. Haddow teaches a range of supply chain management courses to both undergraduate and graduate level students. He also supports students as faculty advisor during supply chain case competitions and participates in various CESCM activities (e.g., SCM Think Tanks, Corporate Advisory Board, Site Visits, Workshops, etc.). Mr. Haddow has made supply chain presentations at ISM, IMC, APICS, PMAC and other Global industry conferences. Mr. Haddow has previously held positions as Director of Global Procurement (Chief Procurement Officer) and a Supply Chain consultant for A.T. Kearney a global consulting firm, Cost and Financial Analyst at the Interstate Commerce Commission and Safeway Stores, Inc. His 30 years of consulting and industry experience encompass global procurement, supply chain management, business planning and commercial business development which provides hands-on teaching examples for his students.

Tanya Penny is a strategy and finance executive with an extensive track record across critical functions in the Fortune 50 realm. Penny held positions as Chief Procurement Officer at Verizon, with over $35 billion in spend and Senior Vice President of Real Estate, controlling a $2B budget and 3,000+ staff.

As President/CEO of TPW & Associates, a strategy consulting firm advising clients on financial and business performance, Penny continues to design and lead high-impact business transformation projects.

Penny serves on the advisory board of Ampcus, Inc., Ivy Community Charities, and leads the Board of Directors for the Redda Group.

Ann Ramakumaran is the Founder and CEO of Ampcus Inc a technology savvy entrepreneur with more than 10 years of contribution towards the design and development of software services and delivery of Information Technology services. Under her leadership, she has grown Ampcus Inc into a fast-growing consulting and professional services firm.

She has been awarded as the top Asian American owned businesses by USPAACC for 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 and 50 fastest growing women owned businesses in the CONUS by the Women Presidents Organization for the years 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014. Ampcus Inc made the Inc 500/5000 list for the years 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014. Ampcus Inc has also been recognized as the Top diversity business for the years 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014.

Ann has helped fortune 2000 companies with their enterprise-wide customized solutions. She reports to the board and drives the company to attain its vision of being one of the largest Professional services companies globally. She has been involved in executing a consultative methodology to define, qualify, and quantify the clients’ targeted and strategic IT and business objectives and from this, develop solutions to proactively address current and evolving needs and projects.

Ann holds her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in business and commercial management from India. She has also completed an executive management program from the Robins School of Management, University of Richmond.

Namita Tirath is the co-founder, co-owner and Chief Customer Officer of Pyramid Consulting, Inc., a company specializing in technology and professional staffing, and technology solutions across North America, Europe and Asia. Namita’s leadership has grown Pyramid from 3 people working in an Atlanta basement to a $300M business in 20+ countries.

In response to growing IT talent shortages, in 2019 Namita drove the creation of Pyramid Academy, giving recent college grads and those looking to grow in their careers the opportunity to re-skill, upskill or get their foot in the door with intensive IT training and a career-path while providing talent for clients. The Academy has graduated 100+ people and counting.

In addition to her experience and longevity in the marketspace, Namita brings her passion to increase diversity in the technology space, and the tenacity, perseverance, persuasiveness and ability to connect with people on both a personal and professional level that it takes to drive collaboration and change.

Dr. Anthony Wilbon's expertise is in strategic technology management. He is also a certified Project Management Professional (PMP). Particular areas of research include technology strategy, quantitative analysis, information technology, and technology innovation and entrepreneurship. Research in sustainable environmental engineering through the integration of social, environmental, and economic considerations into systems design methods has also been explored through funded NOAA research projects. Dr. Wilbon has previously held positions at organizations such as the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and Booz Allen and Hamilton. His professional experience and capabilities extend to business, management, and technology related topics including systems application and technology, production and operations management, project management, systems development life cycle, and research methodology (quantitative and qualitative).

Kevin G. O’Brien was recently named the SVP, IT Chief Financial Officer, Chief Procurement Officer and the Business Transformation Office Leader. Kevin brings more than 30 years of financial experience and a proven track record of helping businesses achieve their strategic priorities. Kevin’s experience in activating business strategies, contract negotiations, identifying creative and financially sound growth and expansion opportunities, along with his leadership and talent development skills, make him ideally positioned for this role.

Kevin began his career with Nationwide in 1998 and has served in many different roles within Finance including Investor Relations, CFO for Individual Protection, Strategy & Capital Management, CFO for Retirement Plans and most recently leading the Mergers & Acquisitions team. .

Prior to joining Nationwide, Kevin worked at Hartford Life and attained his Certified Public Accountant (CPA) designation while working at KPMG in Springfield, MA.

Kevin earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Management with an Accounting Concentration from Westfield State University. He has four daughters and lives in Westerville with his better half, Denise, where he serves on the Olentangy Local Schools’ Board of Education.

Shannon Seery is an economist for Wells Fargo’s Corporate and Investment Bank. She provides analysis on the U.S. macro economy, with a special focus on international trade, corporate profits, and consumer spending.

Shannon regularly contributes to the group’s economic commentary and her perspectives have been shared in The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, and on National Public Radio. Her work has also been published in major academic journals. Shannon frequently hosts the group’s Monthly Economic Outlook video and podcasts.

Shannon is based in Charlotte, North Carolina. She joined the economics group in 2017 and graduated from St. John’s University in New York with a B.S. in economics.

Chief Procurement Officers Forum

Charles White leads the Procurement group at Nationwide covering all source to pay functions, corporate travel, supplier diversity and risk management. Charles has over two decades of experience in diverse sectors including, financial services, high tech, and consumer electronics manufacturing. He has covered a wide range of direct and indirect categories while working for some of the largest companies in the Technology and Financial Services. He recently joined Nationwide in December 2018 from Charles Schwab and prior to that was with Fidelity, Deutsche Bank and Microsoft. He is a US Navy Veteran and former aircraft carrier based jet pilot. He graduated from Oregon State University with a Bachelor of Science in Biology.

Keith Sultana joined Ingersoll Rand in November 2008 and was appointed Vice President, Global Procurement in January 2015. Ingersoll Rand’s family of brands includes Club Car®, Ingersoll Rand®, Thermo King® and Trane®. Keith’s responsibilities include overseeing a global purchase spend in excess of $7 billion, developing a supplier development team managing 7,000+ direct material suppliers, and leading the company’s Quality Leadership Team. To support the company’s growth and operational excellence strategies, he is currently focused on three key initiatives: new product development, functional expertise, and supplier innovation.

Prior to his appointment to lead Global Procurement, Keith began his Ingersoll Rand career as Vice President, Global Integrated Supply Chain for Industrial Technologies; was then appointed Vice President, Global Integrated Supply Chain for Climate Solutions; and finally appointed Vice President, Integrated Supply Chain for Trane North America and EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa). Prior to Ingersoll Rand, Keith was with General Electric for 17 years where he held various operations and distribution roles.

Keith has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Michigan State University.

Wassel Lewis is vice president of Strategic Sourcing and Procurement and manages approximately $1.2 billion in spend. He is responsible for: Category Management, Strategic Sourcing, Procurement Ops, Procurement Administration, Supplier Relationship Management, Performance Management and Supplier Diversity.

Wassel joined Aflac in 2007 as senior project consultant in the Enterprise Project Office. During his career at Aflac he served in IT-PMO, and Strategic Partnerships before joining Strategic Sourcing and Procurement.

Wassel earned a bachelor’s degree from Howard University and a Master of Business Administration from Southern Methodist University.

Joanna Zhong is Senior Vice President, Asian Segment Strategy Leader at Wells Fargo. In this role, Joanna leads the development of the Asian segment strategy as well as drives cross-segment business strategies that deliver on Wells Fargo Diverse Segments enterprise strategy.

Joanna joined Well Fargo in 2018, bringing more than 14 years of marketing

experience in financial services industry. Prior to joining Wells Faro, Joanna was with Bank of America, where she most recently served as Senior Vice President, Acquisition Marketing

Manager, leading the development of multi-channel acquisition marketing strategies for mass affluent and affluent segments to drive new client growth. Prior to that, Joanna led the national acquisition marketing strategy for Business Banking, where she was responsible for managing the end to end marketing strategies and programs targeting mid-sized businesses with prior experience leading portfolio marketing for small business credit card at Bank of America.

Joanna's background includes extensive domestic and international B2B and B2C experience in strategic planning and activation of integrated marketing programs. Joanna has previously lived and worked in China and Australia, where she held a variety of leadership roles in product management and marketing for various companies.

Joanna has a Master’s in Business Administration from the Australian Graduate School of Management at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and her BA from Guangzhou University, China. She is tri-lingual and speaks Mandarin, Cantonese and English.

James Haddow is Director of the Center for Excellence in Supply Chain Management (CESUM) and a professor in the School of Business at Howard University in Washington DC. Currently, Mr. Haddow teaches a range of supply chain management courses to both undergraduate and graduate level students. He also supports students as faculty advisor during supply chain case competitions and participates in various CESCM activities (e.g., SCM Think Tanks, Corporate Advisory Board, Site Visits, Workshops, etc.). Mr. Haddow has made supply chain presentations at ISM, IMC, APICS, PMAC and other Global industry conferences. Mr. Haddow has previously held positions as Director of Global Procurement (Chief Procurement Officer) and a Supply Chain consultant for A.T. Kearney a global consulting firm, Cost and Financial Analyst at the Interstate Commerce Commission and Safeway Stores, Inc. His 30 years of consulting and industry experience encompass global procurement, supply chain management, business planning and commercial business development which provides hands-on teaching examples for his students.

Tanya Penny is a strategy and finance executive with an extensive track record across critical functions in the Fortune 50 realm. Penny held positions as Chief Procurement Officer at Verizon, with over $35 billion in spend and Senior Vice President of Real Estate, controlling a $2B budget and 3,000+ staff.

As President/CEO of TPW & Associates, a strategy consulting firm advising clients on financial and business performance, Penny continues to design and lead high-impact business transformation projects.

Penny serves on the advisory board of Ampcus, Inc., Ivy Community Charities, and leads the Board of Directors for the Redda Group.

Robert Khan is the Vice President of Procurement and Contract Management for AARP, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to helping people ages 50 and older to improve their quality of life as they age. Robert is responsible for leading the procurement efforts to efficiently and effectively enable business units and functional partners to maximize the value they receive from suppliers to achieve their objectives. This includes working with the stakeholder(s) to assess business requirements and acquire goods or services that meet their needs.

Prior to joining AARP, Robert was the Vice President of Shared Financial Services for the National Geographic Society where he oversaw Accounting Operations such as P2P process, Credit and Collections, Customer Payment Processing, Billing, Payroll, as well as Credit Risk and Analysis.

Before joining National Geographic Robert was the Vice President of Accounting Operations at Discovery Communications Inc.; where, he was responsible for the Domestic Shared Services Center that included Account Payable, Credit and Collections, Billing, Payroll, Procurement, and the Travel & Procurement Credit Card Program.

Robert has a B.S. degree in accounting and business management from the University of Maryland. He lives in Bowie, Maryland with his wife, Patricia and daughters, Melissa and Morgan.

Hugo Evans is digital procurement futurist and a vice president in A.T. Kearney’s San Francisco office.

He has nearly two decades of experience working with procurement organizations to architect, design, and adopt digital technologies. His work is geared toward disrupting subpar technology adoption and building future strategies through advanced partnerships with startups and emerging technology solution providers.

He is an Inaugural member of ISM’s Thought Leadership Council and frequent writer and presenter about digital procurement.

Anu Saxena, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Hilton’s procurement organization, Hilton Supply Management, is on the Washington Business Journal’s 2018 “40 Under 40” list. Saxena joins other business professionals under the age of 40 who have shown a strong record of innovation in their fields, outstanding performance in business and a clear track record of meaningful community involvement.

Saxena is recognized for her experience leading and transforming the world’s largest global procurement organization focused on the hospitality industry. Her team sources $4 billion worth of goods and services across 103 countries for more than 5,000 hotels around the world.

Saxena serves on the Board of Directors for D.C. Safe, a nonprofit organization that assists survivors of domestic violence in the Washington, D.C. area.

Saxena is also the leadership advocate for Hilton's Asian & Pacific Islander Team Member Resource Group, an affinity network that fosters an inclusive corporate culture and promotes professional growth and development. “We know our people are our greatest asset and Anu is an example with her strong leadership, sharp business acumen and the tremendous positive impact that comes with her commitment to giving back to the community,” said Matthew W. Schuyler, Chief Human Resources Officer, Hilton.

Prior to her current role, Saxena was Vice President, Product Management for Hilton Global Brand Services & Innovation. She established the Product Advisory Council with top ownership, management, and real estate companies, and led the design, development, and commercialization of products for all Hilton brands globally.

“It is an honor to be recognized by the Washington Business Journal and to share the stage with distinguished business leaders from across the region,” Saxena said.

A native of India, Saxena came to the U.S. to pursue her undergraduate degree, earning her bachelor's degree from Ohio State University.

James Haddow is Director of the Center for Excellence in Supply Chain Management (CESUM) and a professor in the School of Business at Howard University in Washington DC. Currently, Mr. Haddow teaches a range of supply chain management courses to both undergraduate and graduate level students. He also supports students as faculty advisor during supply chain case competitions and participates in various CESCM activities (e.g., SCM Think Tanks, Corporate Advisory Board, Site Visits, Workshops, etc.). Mr. Haddow has made supply chain presentations at ISM, IMC, APICS, PMAC and other Global industry conferences. Mr. Haddow has previously held positions as Director of Global Procurement (Chief Procurement Officer) and a Supply Chain consultant for A.T. Kearney a global consulting firm, Cost and Financial Analyst at the Interstate Commerce Commission and Safeway Stores, Inc. His 30 years of consulting and industry experience encompass global procurement, supply chain management, business planning and commercial business development which provides hands-on teaching examples for his students.

John Evans is vice president, Global Procurement for Ingersoll Rand. He was appointed to the position in October 2015.

John is a growth-oriented leader with two central beliefs: winning requires us to fully understand the needs of end-user customers, and serving end-user customers successfully stems from operational excellence, business transformation and employee engagement.

John has been with Ingersoll Rand since 2000 in a variety of roles of increasing importance. Prior to his appointment as leader of Global Procurement, John was the President of the Power Tools Strategic Business Unit (SBU) for Ingersoll Rand. Power Tools offers a robust portfolio of assembly, industrial, cordless, construction and vehicle service tools and accessories, and has a long-standing reputation for being powerful, ergonomically designed, reliable and efficient.

Prior to his role in Power Tools, John was the President of Residential Security Solutions at Ingersoll Rand where he had full profit and loss responsibility for the business including product and business development; sales and service; and accountability for operational excellence across global manufacturing and distribution.

Previously, John served as vice president of marketing and product management for Residential Solutions as well as vice president of operations for the company’s Climate Control Technologies sector; and vice president of enterprise services, helping to lead the integration of Trane into Ingersoll Rand. John has championed innovative product and solutions launches and executed and integrated acquisitions that expanded technologies and product portfolios. He has a passion for product and category management, and the creation of highly strategic marketing, channel and e-commerce programs that drive end user loyalty.

Before joining Ingersoll Rand in 2000, John was vice president of North American operations at Leoni Wiring Systems; worked as an operations manager at Marley Cooling Tower; and held a variety of positions at Electro-Wire Products. John began his career as a supplier quality assurance engineer in electronics at Cummins Engine Company.

He received a bachelor’s degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Kansas and a master’s degree in business administration from St. Bonaventure University.

Chief Procurement Officers Forum

Charles White leads the Procurement group at Nationwide covering all source to pay functions, corporate travel, supplier diversity and risk management. Charles has over two decades of experience in diverse sectors including, financial services, high tech, and consumer electronics manufacturing. He has covered a wide range of direct and indirect categories while working for some of the largest companies in the Technology and Financial Services. He recently joined Nationwide in December 2018 from Charles Schwab and prior to that was with Fidelity, Deutsche Bank and Microsoft. He is a US Navy Veteran and former aircraft carrier based jet pilot. He graduated from Oregon State University with a Bachelor of Science in Biology.

Tom Lutz joined U.S. Bancorp as Senior Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer in April 2008. He has been responsible for strategic sourcing, acquisitions, and supplier diversity. Since joining U.S. Bancorp 15 years ago, Tom has focused on delivering significantly greater value across the enterprise through more effective internal alignment, risk management, improved vendor relationships, strategic talent management, and a shareholder-centric view of operating costs and business practices.

Tom has thirty eight years of experience in the areas of procurement, supply chain management, and information systems. Tom serves as board member of the National Minority Supplier Development Council effective. Prior to joining U.S. Bank, Tom spent twenty years with General Mills in a variety of roles, and three years with Pulte Homes as national vice president of procurement. Tom currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees for Bethlehem College & Seminary.

Tom is a native of Minnesota, and received a bachelor’s degree in business and systems analysis from Taylor University in Upland, Indiana. Tom and his wife Heather have six children and three grandchildren.

Mike Fath has recently retired as Senior Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer for Caesars Entertainment Corporation where he lead a team responsible for negotiations, contracting and all components of the supply chain for the nearly $3.0 billion in goods and services required to support Caeasers owned and managed hotels and casinos in North America and around the world.

Mike’s team of 350 people were responsible to contract and buy everything from food, beverage and hospitality products, to Gaming Equipment and supplies, to Media, advertising, promotional products and print, to professional services, (including legal services), information technology, facilities equipment and maintenance services and construction.

Mike lead Caesars Entertainment’s commitment to the diverse communities where it does business by procuring goods, products and services from a diversified pool of suppliers, contractors and professional service providers, and working with small local businesses to help them grow.

Prior to Caesars, Mike served as SVP of Procurement at First Group America, the largest transport operator in North America, operating 50,000 school buses under the brand First Student as well as owning Greyhound. While at FGA, Mike led the integration of sourcing and supply chain operations after the 2007 acquisition of Laidlaw doubled the size of the North American business.

Before joining First Group, Mike was a consulting partner with KPMG. Elected to the partnership in 1994, he was a leader in the firm’s Supply Chain consulting practice in North America.

Mike has a Master of Business Administration, from Michigan State University and earned his undergraduate degree from Capital University in Columbus, Ohio.

Brian joined PepsiCo in June of 2015 to lead the strategic sourcing and procurement agenda for PepsiCo’s Direct Procurement area and is accountable for $10 billion spend annually. His areas of responsibility include global rigid and flexible packaging, energy, sweeteners and print graphics and quality. He also has Procurement responsibility for the AMENA sector.

Brian joined PepsiCo from Mondelez/Kraft where he spent 20 years in roles of increasing responsibility. He had roles in commodities, direct materials, indirect materials & services, 3rd party manufacturing and strategy and has been based in both Chicago and Atlanta. He then moved to Singapore where he led Kraft Foods’ Asia Pacific Procurement organization. During those five years, he integrated the acquisitions of Danone biscuit and Cadbury with new geographies, organizations and product portfolio. Most recently he spent four years in Zurich where he was responsible for the global Chocolate Category Procurement organization.

Brian holds a BS in Economics from the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign and an MS in Management from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Michelle Hawkins is Senior Vice President of Procurement at Charter Communications and is located in Denver, Colorado. She joined Charter in June 2012 to develop and transform their Procurement organization. Michelle and her team provide Strategic Sourcing expertise aimed at bringing business value to functional areas across the enterprise. The organization also includes the centralized Purchasing and Contracts Administration functions and is responsible for Charter’s Supplier Diversity program.

Michelle's career began in the telecommunications industry. She spent 22 years at Motorola in various leadership positions in both Direct and Indirect Strategic Procurement. While at Motorola, she had global responsibility with team members in 16 different countries. Michelle also spent one year at Nokia Siemens Networks while she led the procurement integration after the acquisition of the former Motorola Networks business.

Michelle holds a bachelor's degree in Materials and Logistics Management from Michigan State University and a MBA from the University of Phoenix. She is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) from PMI and holds a Global Leadership Certificate from Thunderbird School of Global Management. In 2010, she was a Board Member of Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC). Michelle also was an instructor for “Leadership in Supply Management” at DePaul University as part of their continuing education program in effort to prepare participants for ISM’s CPSM certification. Michelle is a 2016 BMLI Graduate, Class #33 and a member of WICT.

Angie Klett is senior vice president IT CFO and Chief Procurement Officer (CPO). As CFO, Angie is a strategic business partner to CIO Mike Keller, providing financial planning and reporting on the $1B+ IT budget. Since a great deal of technology spend is sourced externally from suppliers, there’s a tight link to Angie’s responsibilities as CPO where she leads $4B of strategic sourcing and procurement for Nationwide.

Previously, Angie served as Vice President CFO for P&C Personal Lines and Standard Commercial lines where she was responsible for developing the 5-year financial plan, forecasting and reporting for both agency and direct.

Angie began her career as an accountant in the financial services side of Nationwide. She held a number of roles in finance before jumping into the property and casualty business where she spent nearly half of her career in leadership positions across sales and service centers, marketing, and product management.

Angie holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Ohio Wesleyan University, a Chartered Financial Consultant designation and is a CPA. She currently serves as Treasurer and chair of the finance committee on the Berger Health System board in her local community of Circleville Ohio. Additionally, she and her husband own and operate Burr Oak Nursery on their 70 acres.

Tom Lutz joined U.S. Bancorp as Senior Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer in April 2008. He has been responsible for strategic sourcing, acquisitions, and supplier diversity. Since joining U.S. Bancorp 15 years ago, Tom has focused on delivering significantly greater value across the enterprise through more effective internal alignment, risk management, improved vendor relationships, strategic talent management, and a shareholder-centric view of operating costs and business practices.

Tom has thirty eight years of experience in the areas of procurement, supply chain management, and information systems. Tom serves as board member of the National Minority Supplier Development Council effective. Prior to joining U.S. Bank, Tom spent twenty years with General Mills in a variety of roles, and three years with Pulte Homes as national vice president of procurement. Tom currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees for Bethlehem College & Seminary.

Tom is a native of Minnesota, and received a bachelor’s degree in business and systems analysis from Taylor University in Upland, Indiana. Tom and his wife Heather have six children and three grandchildren.

Stephane entered the hospitality industry in 1990 and has a degree in Hotel Business Administration. His career began with Holiday Inn and later he joined the Ramada/ Renaissance group to set up their purchasing department in Eschborn (Germany) covering EMEA. In 1997, Stephane was named Regional Director of Procurement for Continental Europe, overseeing Marriott’s procurement operations to drive margins optimization from contract programs and provide services and savings to our regional teams and owners. In 2002 Stephane was promoted to Vice President International Procurement, managing successfully procurement functions in London, Dubai, Shanghai, Sydney, Bangkok, Eschborn, Paris, Cap Town, Hong Kong and Mumbai. He was responsible for assisting our hotels to maximize buying leverage, providing support to ensure compliance and monitoring service levels of vendors.

As the leader of the Global Procurement Team, Stephane who is a 23-year veteran with Marriott, successfully led the team through the Starwood hotels acquisition, which added ,500 hotels to the 4,000 already supported by the team.

In 2017 Stephane was promoted to Senior Vice President and continues to develop opportunities by leading a team to manage and deploy global key procurement initiatives and strategies including an EProcurement tool which is scalable, environmentally responsible, increases synergies between domestic and international contacts and advances global supplier diversity.

Gun S. Shim is Vice President of Supply Chain Management for Pacific Gas and Electric Company. He is responsible for PG&E's Supply Chain policies and standards, responsible for Strategic Sourcing, enhancing supplier relationships, materials and inventory management, logistics, Supplier Quality Assurance, and Logistics Emergency Response.

Shim has over 25 years of supply chain and procurement experience. Before joining PG&E in September 2009, he was the Vice President, Procurement with T-Mobile USA. Prior to this role, Shim spent over 17 years with SBC Communications, now AT&T, where he held various vice president positions within Shared Services and Supply Chain. At SBC, Shim was one of the leaders who led supply chain merger integrations which included some of the largest mergers at that time.

He was also a principle owner of GS and Company that provided project management and strategic sourcing solutions. As a principal, Shim specialized in raising venture capital for web-enabled buying portals and forming consortium buying groups targeted at specific categories.

Shim holds a bachelor's degree in political science. He serves on several boards that help advance supply chain principles and practices.

DK has 28 years of leadership experience in industrial/energy management, consumer product, technology, auto, and power equipment manufacturing environment with direct experience in engineering and supply chain including procurement (direct and indirect), logistics, supply-demand, inventory management, and operations.

DK is currently a Chief Purchasing Officer for the Schneider Electric with a global procurement responsibility of $15B spend. He has been with Schneider Electric since August 2014.

Prior to his current position at Schneider Electric, DK spent eight years at ConAgra Foods as a CPO and had the responsibility of enterprise procurement with $10B global spend. Prior to this, he spent three years at Motorola where he held the roles of senior executive in Procurement. He was the Vice President of Procurement for the Motorola’s Mobile Devices Group and had the responsibility of $12B Sourcing for the cell phone business. DK was also the Vice President with Motorola’s Global Procurement function with the responsibilities of Indirect Global Sourcing with $6.0B+ spend.

Before joining Motorola in 2003, DK spent 15 years with IBM Corp in many different leadership roles including product development, engineering, logistics, supply/demand, inventory mgmt, and Global Procurement. His last responsibilities at IBM included managing Global Services Procurement with significant responsibilities.

DK has a Master’s in Industrial Engineering, a BS in Mechanical Engineering and has been a registered Professional Engineer (PE). He has published many articles related to manufacturing and supply-chain in external and internal journals. He has been on the Advisory Board for Resin Technology, NMSDC (National Minority Supplier Development Council) and works closely with USPAACC.

Shelley Stewart, Jr. is Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer at DuPont, where he leads global procurement and logistics. His role is to improve efficiency and deliver cost savings across the enterprise. In January 2016, he assumed the responsibility for Facilities Services and Real Estate. Before joining DuPont, Shelley was Senior Vice President of Operational Excellence and Chief Procurement Officer at Tyco, where he led Procurement, Information Technology, Lean Six Sigma and Real Estate, and where he delivered $1B in cost savings in his first three years. Prior positions include SVP of Supply Chain at Invensys, VP of Supply Chain at Raytheon, and 18 years at United Technologies, where he led various senior level operations and supply chain roles.

Shelley is chair of the Board of Visitors at Howard University’s School of Business and is a member of Northeastern University’s Corporation. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of Drexel University Center for Corporate Governance. Shelley is a Fellow of the National Association of Corporate Directors.

Shelley served on the board of directors of Cleco Corporation, a Louisiana regulated utility, where he also served on the audit committee and was chair of the nominating and governance committee. He is also a former Vice Chair of the Board for the National Minority Supplier Development Council. As a former chair of the Institute for Supply Management, he has been consistently recognized as a leader within the supply chain profession. He has been identified as one of the 100 Most Powerful Executives in Corporate America by Black Enterprise, and recognized by Savoy. In 2013 he was named a Bartels Fellow by the University of New Haven. In 2011 Shelley was appointed by the Secretary of Commerce to serve on the U.S. Department of Commerce National Advisory Council on Minority Business. In October 2016, he received the Abe Venable Legacy Award for Lifetime Achievement by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Minority Business Development Agency.

Shelley holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of New Haven and both a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree of Science in Criminal Justice from Northeastern University. He is co-author of Straight To The Bottom Line™: An Executive’s Roadmap to World Class Supply Management, (J.Ross Publishing).

Dan Ikenson is director of Cato’s Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies, where he coordinates and conducts research on all manner of international trade and investment policy. Since joining Cato in 2000, Ikenson has authored dozens of papers on various aspects of trade policy, focusing his research on U.S.-China trade relations; bilateral and multilateral trade agreements and institutions; globalization; U.S. manufacturing issues; trade politics; and trade remedies, such as the antidumping regime.

Ikenson has been involved in international trade since 1990. Before joining the Cato Institute in 2000, he was director of international trade planning for an international accounting and business advisory firm. In 1997 he cofounded and was a principal at an international trade consulting firm in Washington,.and from 1990 to 1997 he was a trade policy and antidumping analyst at a few international trade law practices. In addition to his many studies and articles, Ikenson is coauthor of the book Antidumping Exposed: The Devilish Details of Unfair Trade Law. He has testified before congressional committees on a variety of policy matter and has appeared on numerous television news programs and networks, including PBS, CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg TV, MSNBC, ABC News, Fox News, Fox Business News, and NPR. His articles have been published in widely circulated newspapers and magazines, including the Wall Street Journal,the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Times, the Detroit News, Forbes, and National Review.

Ikenson holds a MA in economics from George Washington University.

Stephen Moore, who formerly wrote on the economy and public policy for The Wall Street Journal, is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Project for Economic Growth, at The Heritage Foundation. Moore, who also was a member of The Journal's editorial board, returned to Heritage in January 2014—about 25 years after his tenure as the leading conservative think tank’s Grover M. Hermann Fellow in Budgetary Affairs from 1984 to 1987.

Moore was previously the founder and president of the Club for Growth, which raises money for political candidates who favor free-market economic policies. Moore also founded the Free Enterprise Fund before joining The Wall Street Journal.

Over the years, Moore has served as a senior economist at the Congressional Joint Economic Committee, and as a senior economics fellow at the Cato Institute, where he published dozens of studies on federal and state fiscal policy.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Moore served as senior economic advisor to Donald Trump and helped draft early versions of the Trump tax plan. He is currently a senior economics analyst at CNN, and author of "Fueling Freedom: Exposing the Mad War on Energy."

This year he is writing "Trumponomics: Inside the America First Plan to get our Economy Back on Track with Arthur Laffer."

John is a partner in our Risk Practice, advising clients on a variety of topics related to risk and regulation, including third party risk management. He has extensive knowledge of regulation, the banking industry, monetary policy, and economics. Prior to joining McKinsey in 2012, John served as the acting Comptroller of the Currency from August 2010 until April 2012. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), a bureau of the US Treasury Department, supervises approximately 2,000 national banks and federal savings associations as well as 50 federal branches and agencies of foreign banks in the United States. From 2005 until 2010, John was the OCC’s Chief of Staff and Public Affairs. John publishes regularly on his topics of focus and speaks at forums around the globe.

Anu Saxena, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Hilton’s procurement organization, Hilton Supply Management, is on the Washington Business Journal’s 2018 “40 Under 40” list. Saxena joins other business professionals under the age of 40 who have shown a strong record of innovation in their fields, outstanding performance in business and a clear track record of meaningful community involvement.

Saxena is recognized for her experience leading and transforming the world’s largest global procurement organization focused on the hospitality industry. Her team sources $4 billion worth of goods and services across 103 countries for more than 5,000 hotels around the world.

Saxena serves on the Board of Directors for D.C. Safe, a nonprofit organization that assists survivors of domestic violence in the Washington, D.C. area.

Saxena is also the leadership advocate for Hilton's Asian & Pacific Islander Team Member Resource Group, an affinity network that fosters an inclusive corporate culture and promotes professional growth and development. “We know our people are our greatest asset and Anu is an example with her strong leadership, sharp business acumen and the tremendous positive impact that comes with her commitment to giving back to the community,” said Matthew W. Schuyler, Chief Human Resources Officer, Hilton.

Prior to her current role, Saxena was Vice President, Product Management for Hilton Global Brand Services & Innovation. She established the Product Advisory Council with top ownership, management, and real estate companies, and led the design, development, and commercialization of products for all Hilton brands globally.

“It is an honor to be recognized by the Washington Business Journal and to share the stage with distinguished business leaders from across the region,” Saxena said.

A native of India, Saxena came to the U.S. to pursue her undergraduate degree, earning her bachelor's degree from Ohio State University.

Douglas Bauder is vice president, Operational Services and chief procurement officer at Southern California Edison (SCE). He is responsible for the strategic direction of Operational Services, including supply chain management, supplier diversity and development, transportation services, environmental services and corporate real estate. As chief procurement officer, he oversees purchasing of services and materials in excess of $4 billion annually to support the company’s goals to provide safe, reliable, affordable, and clean energy.

Prior to this position, Bauder served as vice president and station manager for the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). After joining SCE in February 2009, Bauder was responsible for all aspects of a dual unit nuclear plant. He was in charge of strategic planning and improvements in station regulatory performance and industry excellence. Bauder also provided oversight of day-to-day plant activities associated with the operation and maintenance of the plant, security, training, engineering, procurement and the implementation of major projects.

Before his tenure at SCE, Bauder served as the plant general manager for Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant in Maryland. During his 20 years at Calvert Cliffs, he led all aspects of plant management and implemented a site excellence plan, as well as a standard integrated program, that directly contributed to improved business performance functions.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from LeTourneau University in Longview, Texas. Bauder also served as a United States Naval Submarine Officer in Norfolk, Virginia. He is also a graduate of Edison International’s Executive Edge Program.

Michael Cooper has been with Disney Parks and Resorts for the total of 13 years and in the position of a Director of Procurement and Sourcing for 11 years. Prior to coming to Disney, he was Purchasing Manager at the All American Gourmet Co. as well as at Nestle USA. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Finance and Management from the University of Utah.

John Evans is vice president, Global Procurement for Ingersoll Rand. He was appointed to the position in October 2015.

John is a growth-oriented leader with two central beliefs: winning requires us to fully understand the needs of end-user customers, and serving end-user customers successfully stems from operational excellence, business transformation and employee engagement.

John has been with Ingersoll Rand since 2000 in a variety of roles of increasing importance. Prior to his appointment as leader of Global Procurement, John was the President of the Power Tools Strategic Business Unit (SBU) for Ingersoll Rand. Power Tools offers a robust portfolio of assembly, industrial, cordless, construction and vehicle service tools and accessories, and has a long-standing reputation for being powerful, ergonomically designed, reliable and efficient.

Prior to his role in Power Tools, John was the President of Residential Security Solutions at Ingersoll Rand where he had full profit and loss responsibility for the business including product and business development; sales and service; and accountability for operational excellence across global manufacturing and distribution.

Previously, John served as vice president of marketing and product management for Residential Solutions as well as vice president of operations for the company’s Climate Control Technologies sector; and vice president of enterprise services, helping to lead the integration of Trane into Ingersoll Rand. John has championed innovative product and solutions launches and executed and integrated acquisitions that expanded technologies and product portfolios. He has a passion for product and category management, and the creation of highly strategic marketing, channel and e-commerce programs that drive end user loyalty.

Before joining Ingersoll Rand in 2000, John was vice president of North American operations at Leoni Wiring Systems; worked as an operations manager at Marley Cooling Tower; and held a variety of positions at Electro-Wire Products. John began his career as a supplier quality assurance engineer in electronics at Cummins Engine Company.

He received a bachelor’s degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Kansas and a master’s degree in business administration from St. Bonaventure University.

Mike Fath has recently retired as Senior Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer for Caesars Entertainment Corporation where he lead a team responsible for negotiations, contracting and all components of the supply chain for the nearly $3.0 billion in goods and services required to support Caeasers owned and managed hotels and casinos in North America and around the world.

Mike’s team of 350 people were responsible to contract and buy everything from food, beverage and hospitality products, to Gaming Equipment and supplies, to Media, advertising, promotional products and print, to professional services, (including legal services), information technology, facilities equipment and maintenance services and construction.

Mike lead Caesars Entertainment’s commitment to the diverse communities where it does business by procuring goods, products and services from a diversified pool of suppliers, contractors and professional service providers, and working with small local businesses to help them grow.

Prior to Caesars, Mike served as SVP of Procurement at First Group America, the largest transport operator in North America, operating 50,000 school buses under the brand First Student as well as owning Greyhound. While at FGA, Mike led the integration of sourcing and supply chain operations after the 2007 acquisition of Laidlaw doubled the size of the North American business.

Before joining First Group, Mike was a consulting partner with KPMG. Elected to the partnership in 1994, he was a leader in the firm’s Supply Chain consulting practice in North America.

Mike has a Master of Business Administration, from Michigan State University and earned his undergraduate degree from Capital University in Columbus, Ohio.

Brian joined PepsiCo in June of 2015 to lead the strategic sourcing and procurement agenda for PepsiCo’s Direct Procurement area and is accountable for $10 billion spend annually. His areas of responsibility include global rigid and flexible packaging, energy, sweeteners and print graphics and quality. He also has Procurement responsibility for the AMENA sector.

Brian joined PepsiCo from Mondelez/Kraft where he spent 20 years in roles of increasing responsibility. He had roles in commodities, direct materials, indirect materials & services, 3rd party manufacturing and strategy and has been based in both Chicago and Atlanta. He then moved to Singapore where he led Kraft Foods’ Asia Pacific Procurement organization. During those five years, he integrated the acquisitions of Danone biscuit and Cadbury with new geographies, organizations and product portfolio. Most recently he spent four years in Zurich where he was responsible for the global Chocolate Category Procurement organization.

Brian holds a BS in Economics from the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign and an MS in Management from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Michelle Hawkins is Senior Vice President of Procurement at Charter Communications and is located in Denver, Colorado. She joined Charter in June 2012 to develop and transform their Procurement organization. Michelle and her team provide Strategic Sourcing expertise aimed at bringing business value to functional areas across the enterprise. The organization also includes the centralized Purchasing and Contracts Administration functions and is responsible for Charter’s Supplier Diversity program.

Michelle's career began in the telecommunications industry. She spent 22 years at Motorola in various leadership positions in both Direct and Indirect Strategic Procurement. While at Motorola, she had global responsibility with team members in 16 different countries. Michelle also spent one year at Nokia Siemens Networks while she led the procurement integration after the acquisition of the former Motorola Networks business.

Michelle holds a bachelor's degree in Materials and Logistics Management from Michigan State University and a MBA from the University of Phoenix. She is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) from PMI and holds a Global Leadership Certificate from Thunderbird School of Global Management. In 2010, she was a Board Member of Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC). Michelle also was an instructor for “Leadership in Supply Management” at DePaul University as part of their continuing education program in effort to prepare participants for ISM’s CPSM certification. Michelle is a 2016 BMLI Graduate, Class #33 and a member of WICT.

After graduating University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire with a major in comprehensive public accounting, Gary joined the United Parcel Service (UPS) and continued to advance his career until retiring as Chief Procurement Officer. Gary oversaw the entire Source-to-Process and implemented UPS's first Recovery Audit services. Currently Gary serves as PRGX's CPO in Residence.

As the Chief Procurement Officer for UPS, Gary Kallenbach and his team managed all indirect and enterprise-wide complex commodities, including system technologies (hardware and software), professional services, energy and fuel purchases (diesel, air, LNG, propane). In addition, he was responsible for the UPS procure-to-pay process redesign and strategy. Gary also lead the company’s supplier diversity initiatives.

Prior to this role, Gary served in a variety of executive level procurement positions at UPS. Before that, he was a Region Controller in the Midwest, District Controller for Long Island and New York, and an Accounting Manager in Chicago. He began his career with UPS as a loader, unloader and driver before beginning his management career as an Accounting Supervisor in Wisconsin. He has been with UPS for more than 39 years. Gary holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting and Finance from the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire.

In addition to his Procurement responsibilities, Gary currently serves on the board of the National Minority Supplier Diversity Council (NMSDC). He actively supports organization like the U.S. Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce (USPAACC), Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC), and National Urban League, to name a few. Previously he served on the board of directors for Ramapo College of New Jersey. Internally, Gary serves on UPS’s Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Council.

Under his supplier diversity leadership, UPS has received numerous awards, including the Best Corporations for Veteran-Owned Businesses, America’s Top 50 Organizations for Multicultural Business Opportunities, and America’s Top Corporation for Women Business Enterprises from the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council. UPS is one of only three companies to have received this honor for 17 consecutive years.

Angie Klett is senior vice president IT CFO and Chief Procurement Officer (CPO). As CFO, Angie is a strategic business partner to CIO Mike Keller, providing financial planning and reporting on the $1B+ IT budget. Since a great deal of technology spend is sourced externally from suppliers, there’s a tight link to Angie’s responsibilities as CPO where she leads $4B of strategic sourcing and procurement for Nationwide.

Previously, Angie served as Vice President CFO for P&C Personal Lines and Standard Commercial lines where she was responsible for developing the 5-year financial plan, forecasting and reporting for both agency and direct.

Angie began her career as an accountant in the financial services side of Nationwide. She held a number of roles in finance before jumping into the property and casualty business where she spent nearly half of her career in leadership positions across sales and service centers, marketing, and product management.

Angie holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Ohio Wesleyan University, a Chartered Financial Consultant designation and is a CPA. She currently serves as Treasurer and chair of the finance committee on the Berger Health System board in her local community of Circleville Ohio. Additionally, she and her husband own and operate Burr Oak Nursery on their 70 acres.

Tom Lutz joined U.S. Bancorp as Senior Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer in April 2008. He has been responsible for strategic sourcing, acquisitions, and supplier diversity. Since joining U.S. Bancorp 15 years ago, Tom has focused on delivering significantly greater value across the enterprise through more effective internal alignment, risk management, improved vendor relationships, strategic talent management, and a shareholder-centric view of operating costs and business practices.

Tom has thirty eight years of experience in the areas of procurement, supply chain management, and information systems. Tom serves as board member of the National Minority Supplier Development Council effective. Prior to joining U.S. Bank, Tom spent twenty years with General Mills in a variety of roles, and three years with Pulte Homes as national vice president of procurement. Tom currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees for Bethlehem College & Seminary.

Tom is a native of Minnesota, and received a bachelor’s degree in business and systems analysis from Taylor University in Upland, Indiana. Tom and his wife Heather have six children and three grandchildren.

Christina (Chris) Najjar is the Director, Procurement & Operations for AARP and was hired in 2013 to strategize and implement an extensive transformation of the department. Chris has responsibility for managing, developing and implementing supply chain strategies to mitigate risk and streamline operations for the Procurement and Requisitioning Teams. Chris leads a team of professionals who provide sourcing and contracting expertise to internal business clients which includes the Offices of the CEO/CFO/COO, Brand, Media, Research, Foundation, State and Local Communities, Multicultural Markets, Consulting and Professional Services. Chris and her team manage the RFP and negotiations process supporting all client commodities.

Chris graduated with honors from Virginia Tech and has completed the HBS General Management/High Potential Leaders Program.

Gun S. Shim is Vice President of Supply Chain Management for Pacific Gas and Electric Company. He is responsible for PG&E's Supply Chain policies and standards, responsible for Strategic Sourcing, enhancing supplier relationships, materials and inventory management, logistics, Supplier Quality Assurance, and Logistics Emergency Response.

Shim has over 25 years of supply chain and procurement experience. Before joining PG&E in September 2009, he was the Vice President, Procurement with T-Mobile USA. Prior to this role, Shim spent over 17 years with SBC Communications, now AT&T, where he held various vice president positions within Shared Services and Supply Chain. At SBC, Shim was one of the leaders who led supply chain merger integrations which included some of the largest mergers at that time.

He was also a principle owner of GS and Company that provided project management and strategic sourcing solutions. As a principal, Shim specialized in raising venture capital for web-enabled buying portals and forming consortium buying groups targeted at specific categories.

Shim holds a bachelor's degree in political science. He serves on several boards that help advance supply chain principles and practices.

DK has 28 years of leadership experience in industrial/energy management, consumer product, technology, auto, and power equipment manufacturing environment with direct experience in engineering and supply chain including procurement (direct and indirect), logistics, supply-demand, inventory management, and operations.

DK is currently a Chief Purchasing Officer for the Schneider Electric with a global procurement responsibility of $15B spend. He has been with Schneider Electric since August 2014.

Prior to his current position at Schneider Electric, DK spent eight years at ConAgra Foods as a CPO and had the responsibility of enterprise procurement with $10B global spend. Prior to this, he spent three years at Motorola where he held the roles of senior executive in Procurement. He was the Vice President of Procurement for the Motorola’s Mobile Devices Group and had the responsibility of $12B Sourcing for the cell phone business. DK was also the Vice President with Motorola’s Global Procurement function with the responsibilities of Indirect Global Sourcing with $6.0B+ spend.

Before joining Motorola in 2003, DK spent 15 years with IBM Corp in many different leadership roles including product development, engineering, logistics, supply/demand, inventory mgmt, and Global Procurement. His last responsibilities at IBM included managing Global Services Procurement with significant responsibilities.

DK has a Master’s in Industrial Engineering, a BS in Mechanical Engineering and has been a registered Professional Engineer (PE). He has published many articles related to manufacturing and supply-chain in external and internal journals. He has been on the Advisory Board for Resin Technology, NMSDC (National Minority Supplier Development Council) and works closely with USPAACC.

Denita Willoughby is vice president of supply management for Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), Sempra Energy’s regulated California utilities. She is responsible for overseeing the areas of supply management and supplier diversity. Willoughby previously served as regional vice president of external affairs for SoCalGas, where she led the company’s community relations, public affairs, and media & employee communication efforts.

Before joining Sempra Energy, Willoughby held leadership positions at AT&T, which included vice president of television programming during the roll out of U-Verse; vice president of external affairs, leading the company’s government and community affairs activities; and regional sales vice president for SBC Communications.

She serves on the boards of The Center for Global Supply Chain Management at USC, Vision to Learn, Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, and as board chair for UNITE-LA. She is an advocate for improving educational outcomes for all children and dedicates time to mentoring professionals wishing to advance their careers.

Willoughby has a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

William F. Kornegay, Jr. is senior vice president of Hilton supply management (HSM). He directs the formulation and implementation of Hilton Worldwide’s corporate procurement policies and procedures and oversees the global HSM team, which negotiates and implements agreements with product and service providers in more than 90 countries. Mr. Kornegay serves as the executive sponsor for Hilton Worldwide’s African-American Team Member Resource Group, an affinity network that fosters an inclusive corporate culture and promotes professional growth and development for all team members.

Prior to Hilton, Mr. Kornegay has more than 20 years of domestic and international operational leadership experience with Fortune 500 consumer goods companies; he most recently served as senior vice president, global supply chain, at Godiva Chocolatier Inc.

Mr. Kornegay is on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors for National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) and has been recognized as a top supplier diversity executive by Black Enterprise, Savoy and Black EOE Journal magazines. Under his leadership, Hilton Worldwide’s supplier diversity program has won recognition and awards from several networks and magazines including DiversityInc, Hispanic Network Magazine, and DiversityBusiness.com.

Kornegay earned his bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from Northwestern University. He is based at Hilton Worldwide’s global headquarters in McLean, VA.

Mark has more than 20 years of procurement and operations experience in various industries, including telecommunications, retail and media and entertainment.

His responsibilities at Windstream include leadership of the procurement function, managing more than $1 billion in annual spend, the supply chain organization, corporate real estate, fleet and facilities. He joined Windstream from Alix Partners where he led large cost reduction and capability building engagements for publicly and privately-held companies.

Prior to working at Alix Partners, Mark served as AARP’s first Chief Procurement Officer where he transformed a purchasing organization into a true procurement function that leveraged category management, annual sourcing plans and common-sense policies and processes that balanced the need for speed and efficiency in business operations with appropriate competitive bid thresholds and controls.

Earlier in his career, Mark was VP of Procurement and Business Services at L Brands, owners of Victoria’s Secret and Bath and Body Works, where he led a global procurement team managing over $1 billion in annual expenditures. He also served as a Director of Strategic Sourcing for C&S Wholesale Grocers, a $20 billion privately-held company, where he built the non-merchandise procurement department from the ground up.

Out of business school, Mark was a procurement and supply chain consultant at Accenture and Capgemini Ernst and Young, where he helped companies like Time Warner and 7-11 implement centralized procurement organizations, e-procurement technologies, sourcing processes and cost management programs.

Mark has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Prior to graduate school, he served on active duty as a Naval Intelligence Officer.

Dave Wheeler is Senior Vice President, Global Supply Chain and Fleet Management at the Cintas Corporation. Dave joined Cintas in 2001 as a leader within the Distribution Division. Since then, he has served in progressively broader leadership roles at Cintas.

In his role as Senior Vice President, Global Supply Chain and Fleet Management, Dave oversees Cintas’s company-owned and contracted manufacturing plants, procurement of raw materials, strategic sourcing, and nine (9) distribution centers in the U.S. and Canada. He is also responsible for supplier diversity, environmental sustainability, production planning and replenishment, textile research and development, transportation, import/export, inventory management, global supply chain Six Sigma initiatives, fleet management, SAP enterprise development and global supply chain accounts payable.

With a direct spend of $1.3 billion annually, the company’s global supply chain employs 2,100 direct employees and more than 9,000 employees within contractor-owned locations.

Wheeler, 52, holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Merrimack College and an MBA in Operations Management and Finance from Miami University.

Shelley Stewart, Jr. is Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer at DuPont, where he leads global procurement and logistics. His role is to improve efficiency and deliver cost savings across the enterprise. In January 2016, he assumed the responsibility for Facilities Services and Real Estate. Before joining DuPont, Shelley was Senior Vice President of Operational Excellence and Chief Procurement Officer at Tyco, where he led Procurement, Information Technology, Lean Six Sigma and Real Estate, and where he delivered $1B in cost savings in his first three years. Prior positions include SVP of Supply Chain at Invensys, VP of Supply Chain at Raytheon, and 18 years at United Technologies, where he led various senior level operations and supply chain roles.

Shelley is chair of the Board of Visitors at Howard University’s School of Business and is a member of Northeastern University’s Corporation. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of Drexel University Center for Corporate Governance. Shelley is a Fellow of the National Association of Corporate Directors.

Shelley served on the board of directors of Cleco Corporation, a Louisiana regulated utility, where he also served on the audit committee and was chair of the nominating and governance committee. He is also a former Vice Chair of the Board for the National Minority Supplier Development Council. As a former chair of the Institute for Supply Management, he has been consistently recognized as a leader within the supply chain profession. He has been identified as one of the 100 Most Powerful Executives in Corporate America by Black Enterprise, and recognized by Savoy. In 2013 he was named a Bartels Fellow by the University of New Haven. In 2011 Shelley was appointed by the Secretary of Commerce to serve on the U.S. Department of Commerce National Advisory Council on Minority Business. In October 2016, he received the Abe Venable Legacy Award for Lifetime Achievement by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Minority Business Development Agency.

Shelley holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of New Haven and both a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree of Science in Criminal Justice from Northeastern University. He is co-author of Straight To The Bottom Line™: An Executive’s Roadmap to World Class Supply Management, (J.Ross Publishing).

John Evans is vice president, Global Procurement for Ingersoll Rand. He was appointed to the position in October 2015.

John is a growth-oriented leader with two central beliefs: winning requires us to fully understand the needs of end-user customers, and serving end-user customers successfully stems from operational excellence, business transformation and employee engagement.

John has been with Ingersoll Rand since 2000 in a variety of roles of increasing importance. Prior to his appointment as leader of Global Procurement, John was the President of the Power Tools Strategic Business Unit (SBU) for Ingersoll Rand. Power Tools offers a robust portfolio of assembly, industrial, cordless, construction and vehicle service tools and accessories, and has a long-standing reputation for being powerful, ergonomically designed, reliable and efficient.

Prior to his role in Power Tools, John was the President of Residential Security Solutions at Ingersoll Rand where he had full profit and loss responsibility for the business including product and business development; sales and service; and accountability for operational excellence across global manufacturing and distribution.

Previously, John served as vice president of marketing and product management for Residential Solutions as well as vice president of operations for the company’s Climate Control Technologies sector; and vice president of enterprise services, helping to lead the integration of Trane into Ingersoll Rand. John has championed innovative product and solutions launches and executed and integrated acquisitions that expanded technologies and product portfolios. He has a passion for product and category management, and the creation of highly strategic marketing, channel and e-commerce programs that drive end user loyalty.

Before joining Ingersoll Rand in 2000, John was vice president of North American operations at Leoni Wiring Systems; worked as an operations manager at Marley Cooling Tower; and held a variety of positions at Electro-Wire Products. John began his career as a supplier quality assurance engineer in electronics at Cummins Engine Company.

He received a bachelor’s degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Kansas and a master’s degree in business administration from St. Bonaventure University.

Stacey Taylor joined MGM Resorts International in October 2015 as SVP & Chief Procurement Officer. She provides leadership and strategic vision to Global Procurement and is implementing a Companywide procurement program inclusive of sourcing, purchasing, program management and supplier management to optimize financial savings impact and improve associated processes to drive efficiency.

Stacey has nearly 30 years of experience in procurement, purchasing and sourcing. She has served in leadership positions with ConAgra Foods from 2006-2015, most recently as Vice President of Integration, where she handled the design and implementation of a procurement integration plan following the company’s acquisition of Ralcorp. Prior to that, Stacey served as ConAgra’s Vice President of Ingredients and Vice President of Indirect & Capital Services. Stacey’s previous experience also includes nearly a decade of work with Tyco International, including as Director of Global Sourcing and Director of Global Travel.

Stacey received her Master of Business Administration Degree from Anna Maria College in Paxton, Mass., and her Bachelor of Business Administration Degree from Dowling College in Oakdale, NY.

She previously served as the Director of YWCA Omaha, President of The Nebraska High School Lacrosse Association, and member of the Great Plains Minority Supplier Diversity Council, and the New England Minority Supplier Diversity Council.

Michael Hourihan is Vice President and Market Supply Officer for Frito-Lay North America where he leads the strategic sourcing agenda across a diverse portfolio of ingredients, packaging, goods and services.

Michael joined PepsiCo in 1996 and has held a variety of strategic sourcing leadership roles across Foods and Beverages in both direct and indirect sourcing categories.
As he built his career, Michael has operated in UK, Switzerland, Ireland and North America. Before his current role, Michael led the Global Procurement Center of Excellence for Beverage Packaging based in New York.

Michael holds a bachelor’s degree from the University College Dublin, Ireland, and a post graduate from Kingston University Business School, London, UK.

DK has 28 years of leadership experience in industrial/energy management, consumer product, technology, auto, and power equipment manufacturing environment with direct experience in engineering and supply chain including procurement (direct and indirect), logistics, supply-demand, inventory management, and operations.

DK is currently a Chief Purchasing Officer for the Schneider Electric with a global procurement responsibility of $15B spend. He has been with Schneider Electric since August 2014.

Prior to his current position at Schneider Electric, DK spent eight years at ConAgra Foods as a CPO and had the responsibility of enterprise procurement with $10B global spend. Prior to this, he spent three years at Motorola where he held the roles of senior executive in Procurement. He was the Vice President of Procurement for the Motorola’s Mobile Devices Group and had the responsibility of $12B Sourcing for the cell phone business. DK was also the Vice President with Motorola’s Global Procurement function with the responsibilities of Indirect Global Sourcing with $6.0B+ spend.

Before joining Motorola in 2003, DK spent 15 years with IBM Corp in many different leadership roles including product development, engineering, logistics, supply/demand, inventory mgmt, and Global Procurement. His last responsibilities at IBM included managing Global Services Procurement with significant responsibilities.

DK has a Master’s in Industrial Engineering, a BS in Mechanical Engineering and has been a registered Professional Engineer (PE). He has published many articles related to manufacturing and supply-chain in external and internal journals. He has been on the Advisory Board for Resin Technology, NMSDC (National Minority Supplier Development Council) and works closely with USPAACC.

Jeff Franklin is vice president of supply chain management for Southern Company. In that role, he is responsible for Southern Company’s supply chain strategy, including strategic sourcing, contract management, logistics, inventory optimization, asset disposition and supplier diversity initiatives.

A native of Alabama, Jeff received both an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Alabama. He later earned a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Alabama - Birmingham. Jeff attended Harvard’s Executive MBA program in the fall of 2008.

Jeff began his Southern Company career in 1986 as a utility man at Alabama Power’s Plant Miller. He later worked as a student engineer in Alabama Power’s Western division and as a district engineer in the company’s Birmingham division.

Jeff subsequently transferred into Alabama Power’s corporate marketing energy services and enhanced power quality organizations. While participating in the Southern Company Services (SCS) pipeline program, he gained experience with Southern Wholesale Energy, SCS system planning and SCS finance. He then served as project manager for Southern Company Generation strategy and development, where he was responsible for constructing Plant Stanton, a combined-cycle project in Orlando, Florida.

In 2003, Jeff became assistant to the executive vice president of external affairs for Alabama Power. In 2005, he joined Georgia Power as vice president of the company’s Northwest region, and in 2008, he became vice president of sales. In 2009, he was named Georgia Power’s vice president of governmental and regulatory affairs.

Jeff joined Mississippi Power in 2011 as vice president of the customer services organization, where he was responsible for all customer-related activities, including customer accounting, customer call centers, transmission, distribution, engineering, division operations, economic development and marketing.

Jeff serves on the EPRI-Power Delivery & Utilization Sector Council; the Southeastern Electric Exchange Engineering & Operations Executive Committee; the Mississippi Energy Policy Institute Board; the board of the Gulf Coast Renaissance Corporation; and the Boy Scouts of America Pine Burr Area Council. He was also a participant in the 2012 Leadership Mississippi class. He has previously served on the boards of the Greater Rome (Ga.) Chamber of Commerce, the YMCA, Coosa Valley Technical College and the Boy Scouts of America of Northwest Georgia and the Atlanta area, and as a member of the Rome Rotary Club.

Timothy S. Mueller is Executive Vice President and Head of Enterprise Core Services. In this role Tim is responsible for the Strategic Sourcing Management, Corporate Real Estate & Workplace, and Aviation businesses. This includes stewardship and support for over $2 billion of sourceable third-party spend and occupancy expense. Prior to his current role, Tim was Executive Vice President and Head of the Wholesale Business Information Office (BIO) at SunTrust. In this role Tim was responsible for information management, including information strategy, analytics, reporting and data governance, along with technology strategy, investment planning, prioritization and execution for the Wholesale Banking Division.

Prior to becoming the Wholesale BIO in 2012, Tim was Head of Business Consulting and Operations for Diversified Commercial Banking where he was responsible for business strategy, financial analysis, client insights, change management, project execution and reward and recognition programs. From 2008 to 2010 Tim was the Chief Operations Officer (COO) of SunTrust Robinson Humphrey (STRH) and Head of STRH Services. He was responsible for middle and back office operations, quality assurance and technology strategy, execution and support for the investment banking lines of business within STRH. Prior to becoming COO in 2008, Tim was Co-Head of STRH’s Asset Securitization Group, where he led a team responsible for originating, structuring and closing securitization transactions financed through both the asset-backed term and commercial paper markets for SunTrust clients. Tim joined SunTrust in 1999 from the U.S. Air Force where he spent the previous seven years. While in the Air Force, Tim was an instructor of Mathematical Sciences at the U.S. Air Force Academy and also spent time as a Scientific Analyst working on infrared counter measures and computer-based air battle simulation.

Tim graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He also earned a Master’s degree in Applied Mathematics from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix (Colorado Springs campus).

Tim enjoys most outdoor sports and spending time with his family. He and his wife Tricia have three children (two boys and a girl).

After graduating University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire with a major in comprehensive public accounting, Gary joined the United Parcel Service (UPS) and continued to advance his career until retiring as Chief Procurement Officer. Gary oversaw the entire Source-to-Process and implemented UPS's first Recovery Audit services. Currently Gary serves as PRGX's CPO in Residence.

As the Chief Procurement Officer for UPS, Gary Kallenbach and his team managed all indirect and enterprise-wide complex commodities, including system technologies (hardware and software), professional services, energy and fuel purchases (diesel, air, LNG, propane). In addition, he was responsible for the UPS procure-to-pay process redesign and strategy. Gary also lead the company’s supplier diversity initiatives.

Prior to this role, Gary served in a variety of executive level procurement positions at UPS. Before that, he was a Region Controller in the Midwest, District Controller for Long Island and New York, and an Accounting Manager in Chicago. He began his career with UPS as a loader, unloader and driver before beginning his management career as an Accounting Supervisor in Wisconsin. He has been with UPS for more than 39 years. Gary holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting and Finance from the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire.

In addition to his Procurement responsibilities, Gary currently serves on the board of the National Minority Supplier Diversity Council (NMSDC). He actively supports organization like the U.S. Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce (USPAACC), Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC), and National Urban League, to name a few. Previously he served on the board of directors for Ramapo College of New Jersey. Internally, Gary serves on UPS’s Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Council.

Under his supplier diversity leadership, UPS has received numerous awards, including the Best Corporations for Veteran-Owned Businesses, America’s Top 50 Organizations for Multicultural Business Opportunities, and America’s Top Corporation for Women Business Enterprises from the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council. UPS is one of only three companies to have received this honor for 17 consecutive years.

Tom Lutz joined U.S. Bancorp as Senior Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer in April 2008. He has been responsible for strategic sourcing, acquisitions, and supplier diversity. Since joining U.S. Bancorp 15 years ago, Tom has focused on delivering significantly greater value across the enterprise through more effective internal alignment, risk management, improved vendor relationships, strategic talent management, and a shareholder-centric view of operating costs and business practices.

Tom has thirty eight years of experience in the areas of procurement, supply chain management, and information systems. Tom serves as board member of the National Minority Supplier Development Council effective. Prior to joining U.S. Bank, Tom spent twenty years with General Mills in a variety of roles, and three years with Pulte Homes as national vice president of procurement. Tom currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees for Bethlehem College & Seminary.

Tom is a native of Minnesota, and received a bachelor’s degree in business and systems analysis from Taylor University in Upland, Indiana. Tom and his wife Heather have six children and three grandchildren.

Greg Schmid is Senior Vice President and Head of Supply Chain Management at Wells Fargo & Company. In this role, Greg is responsible for enterprise expense reduction strategies, overseeing supplier negotiations, mitigating third party risk, and leading the company’s global source-to-settle procurement strategy. In support of social responsibility initiatives, Greg leads Wells Fargo’s commitment to supplier diversity by integrating certified diverse suppliers into strategic sourcing activities, connecting with communities through outreach programs, and supporting environmental sustainability initiatives.

Joining Wells Fargo in 2000, Greg became involved in the company’s initial strategic sourcing effort and has been instrumental in building Wells Fargo’s current supply chain capabilities. Prior to joining Wells Fargo, Greg held various supply chain and engineering positions in aerospace, industrial automation, and automotive industries.

Greg earned his bachelor’s degree in engineering from Michigan State University and his master’s degree from Keller Graduate School of Management in Phoenix, Arizona.

George Sloan leads AT&T’s Global Business and Operations Supply Chain Organization responsible for $20B in spend across Network, IT, and Enterprise Sales, including Cell Site Equipment and Construction, Cloud Data Centers, and International Support. Previously, George led AT&T’s Consumer Supply Chain team responsible for the procurement and logistics of mobility devices, DSL, and Uverse customer premise equipment and the procurement of over $15B in G&A. He led the Cingular merger integration for AT&T Wireless’ supply chain and the supplier diversity initiatives at both AT&T Wireless and Cingular. His career has included manufacturing & quality roles for NCR, AT&T Wireless, Cingular, and now AT&T.

George received his MBA from Michigan State and BS from the University of Michigan. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children.

Mike Fath has recently retired as Senior Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer for Caesars Entertainment Corporation where he lead a team responsible for negotiations, contracting and all components of the supply chain for the nearly $3.0 billion in goods and services required to support Caeasers owned and managed hotels and casinos in North America and around the world.

Mike’s team of 350 people were responsible to contract and buy everything from food, beverage and hospitality products, to Gaming Equipment and supplies, to Media, advertising, promotional products and print, to professional services, (including legal services), information technology, facilities equipment and maintenance services and construction.

Mike lead Caesars Entertainment’s commitment to the diverse communities where it does business by procuring goods, products and services from a diversified pool of suppliers, contractors and professional service providers, and working with small local businesses to help them grow.

Prior to Caesars, Mike served as SVP of Procurement at First Group America, the largest transport operator in North America, operating 50,000 school buses under the brand First Student as well as owning Greyhound. While at FGA, Mike led the integration of sourcing and supply chain operations after the 2007 acquisition of Laidlaw doubled the size of the North American business.

Before joining First Group, Mike was a consulting partner with KPMG. Elected to the partnership in 1994, he was a leader in the firm’s Supply Chain consulting practice in North America.

Mike has a Master of Business Administration, from Michigan State University and earned his undergraduate degree from Capital University in Columbus, Ohio.

As Duke Energy’s senior vice president and chief procurement officer, Jeff Corbett is responsible for the sourcing and supply chain functions for both the company’s regulated and commercial operations. He assumed his current position in August 2014.

Previously, Corbett served as senior vice president of Carolinas delivery operations for the company’s regulated utilities. In that role, he oversaw the operations of the company’s electric distribution system in North Carolina and South Carolina, including construction, maintenance, engineering, and resource and project management.

Corbett has 32 years of experience in the electric utility industry in a variety of engineering and leadership roles. He spent the first 17 years of his career with Dominion-Virginia Power before joining Progress Energy in 1999. Prior to the Duke Energy/Progress Energy merger in July 2012, Corbett served as senior vice president of energy delivery for Progress Energy Carolinas.

He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from the University of North Carolina at
Charlotte. He is a registered professional engineer in North Carolina and Florida.
Active in the community, Corbett chairs the North Carolina Symphony Society board of trustees and serves on the board of directors of North Carolina New Schools. He is also on the executive committee for the Supply Chain Leaders in Action and is a member of the Charlotte CPO Circle.

Corbett resides in Charlotte, N.C., with his wife, Jean.

William F. Kornegay, Jr. is senior vice president of Hilton supply management (HSM). He directs the formulation and implementation of Hilton Worldwide’s corporate procurement policies and procedures and oversees the global HSM team, which negotiates and implements agreements with product and service providers in more than 90 countries. Mr. Kornegay serves as the executive sponsor for Hilton Worldwide’s African-American Team Member Resource Group, an affinity network that fosters an inclusive corporate culture and promotes professional growth and development for all team members.

Prior to Hilton, Mr. Kornegay has more than 20 years of domestic and international operational leadership experience with Fortune 500 consumer goods companies; he most recently served as senior vice president, global supply chain, at Godiva Chocolatier Inc.

Mr. Kornegay is on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors for National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) and has been recognized as a top supplier diversity executive by Black Enterprise, Savoy and Black EOE Journal magazines. Under his leadership, Hilton Worldwide’s supplier diversity program has won recognition and awards from several networks and magazines including DiversityInc, Hispanic Network Magazine, and DiversityBusiness.com.

Kornegay earned his bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from Northwestern University. He is based at Hilton Worldwide’s global headquarters in McLean, VA.

Keith Sultana joined Ingersoll Rand in November 2008 and was appointed Vice President, Global Procurement in January 2015. Ingersoll Rand’s family of brands includes Club Car®, Ingersoll Rand®, Thermo King® and Trane®. Keith’s responsibilities include overseeing a global purchase spend in excess of $7 billion, developing a supplier development team managing 7,000+ direct material suppliers, and leading the company’s Quality Leadership Team. To support the company’s growth and operational excellence strategies, he is currently focused on three key initiatives: new product development, functional expertise, and supplier innovation.

Prior to his appointment to lead Global Procurement, Keith began his Ingersoll Rand career as Vice President, Global Integrated Supply Chain for Industrial Technologies; was then appointed Vice President, Global Integrated Supply Chain for Climate Solutions; and finally appointed Vice President, Integrated Supply Chain for Trane North America and EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa). Prior to Ingersoll Rand, Keith was with General Electric for 17 years where he held various operations and distribution roles.

Keith has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Michigan State University.

Stephane entered the hospitality industry in 1990 and has a degree in Hotel Business Administration. His career began with Holiday Inn and later he joined the Ramada/ Renaissance group to set up their purchasing department in Eschborn (Germany) covering EMEA. In 1997, Stephane was named Regional Director of Procurement for Continental Europe, overseeing Marriott’s procurement operations to drive margins optimization from contract programs and provide services and savings to our regional teams and owners. In 2002 Stephane was promoted to Vice President International Procurement, managing successfully procurement functions in London, Dubai, Shanghai, Sydney, Bangkok, Eschborn, Paris, Cap Town, Hong Kong and Mumbai. He was responsible for assisting our hotels to maximize buying leverage, providing support to ensure compliance and monitoring service levels of vendors.

As the leader of the Global Procurement Team, Stephane who is a 23-year veteran with Marriott, successfully led the team through the Starwood hotels acquisition, which added ,500 hotels to the 4,000 already supported by the team.

In 2017 Stephane was promoted to Senior Vice President and continues to develop opportunities by leading a team to manage and deploy global key procurement initiatives and strategies including an EProcurement tool which is scalable, environmentally responsible, increases synergies between domestic and international contacts and advances global supplier diversity.

Grace Puma Whiteford is senior vice president & chief procurement officer of PepsiCo. In its global portfolio of food and beverage brands, PepsiCo has 22 different brands that generate more than $1 billion each in annual retail sales. PepsiCo’s main businesses include Quaker, Tropicana, Gatorade, Frito-Lay and Pepsi-Cola. With annual net revenues of more than $65 billion, PepsiCo makes hundreds of enjoyable foods and beverages that are loved throughout the world.

Puma joined PepsiCo in 2010. She is responsible for leading the company’s Global Procurement Function, including ensuring quality along the supply chain, robust commodity risk management practices, best in class productivity delivery and innovation via supplier partnerships and technologies. Her team manages the company’s ~ $30 billion global purchases spend.

Prior to joining PepsiCo, Puma worked for United Airlines (UA), where she served as senior vice president, Chief Procurement Officer since 2007. She led the transformation of UA’s procurement organization to a global Strategic Sourcing function with an enterprise-wide scope. Puma and her team delivered significant savings across the value chain, while effectively handling risk management through the jet fuel crises in 2008.

Before joining UA, she led key areas of Strategic Supply Management globally at Kraft Foods, including raw materials, packaging, indirect materials and services. Puma rose to positions of increasing responsibility at Kraft from 1999 to 2007. She also worked in Strategic Supply Management at Motorola and Gillette.

Puma is based in Purchase, N.Y.

Gun S. Shim is Vice President of Supply Chain Management for Pacific Gas and Electric Company. He is responsible for PG&E's Supply Chain policies and standards, responsible for Strategic Sourcing, enhancing supplier relationships, materials and inventory management, logistics, Supplier Quality Assurance, and Logistics Emergency Response.

Shim has over 25 years of supply chain and procurement experience. Before joining PG&E in September 2009, he was the Vice President, Procurement with T-Mobile USA. Prior to this role, Shim spent over 17 years with SBC Communications, now AT&T, where he held various vice president positions within Shared Services and Supply Chain. At SBC, Shim was one of the leaders who led supply chain merger integrations which included some of the largest mergers at that time.

He was also a principle owner of GS and Company that provided project management and strategic sourcing solutions. As a principal, Shim specialized in raising venture capital for web-enabled buying portals and forming consortium buying groups targeted at specific categories.

Shim holds a bachelor's degree in political science. He serves on several boards that help advance supply chain principles and practices.

Austin joined TIAA-CREF in early 2009 and heads the Strategic Sourcing Department. Austin and his team manage approximately $2 billion in spend and negotiate more than 2,000 deals annually across various spend categories on behalf of TIAA-CREF’s business units. He has been instrumental in transforming TIAA-CREF’s Strategic Sourcing department from its non-profit heritage to an industry-leading Sourcing organization. Austin also leads TIAA-CREF’s Supplier Diversity Program and the company’s diverse spend has doubled from 7% to 15% under his leadership.

TIAA and Austin’s team recently received the following recognition:

• Best Procurement Team – 2012 and 2013 finalist (1 of 8 teams nominated out of 400 applicants)
• Diversity Inc. Top 50 – June 2013 & 2014 (placed 41 and 36, respectively)
• National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) Financial Services “Corporation of the Year” Finalist – 2014 (1 of 3 finalists selected)
• NY&NJ Minority Supplier Development Council “Corporation of the Year” Finalist – 2014 (1 of 3 finalists selected)

Prior to TIAA-CREF, Austin led a team of sourcing professionals at Bank of America, where he was a part of 7 mergers and acquisitions, managed more than $2 Billion in spend and obtained his Six Sigma Black Belt.

Austin also worked for Ford Motor Company and Vastera (a joint venture with Ford Motor Company). At Vastera, he held leadership positions in their Finance, Business Strategy and Operations departments. He also played a key role in their IPO and helped open their Tokyo, Japan office.

Mr. McKeehan holds an MBA from the University of Michigan with an emphasis in Corporate Strategy and obtained his undergraduate degree from Brigham Young University, where he studied Business Management and Japanese.

Mr. McKeehan is married and has three children, two boys and a girl.

After graduating University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire with a major in comprehensive public accounting, Gary joined the United Parcel Service (UPS) and continued to advance his career until retiring as Chief Procurement Officer. Gary oversaw the entire Source-to-Process and implemented UPS's first Recovery Audit services. Currently Gary serves as PRGX's CPO in Residence.

As the Chief Procurement Officer for UPS, Gary Kallenbach and his team managed all indirect and enterprise-wide complex commodities, including system technologies (hardware and software), professional services, energy and fuel purchases (diesel, air, LNG, propane). In addition, he was responsible for the UPS procure-to-pay process redesign and strategy. Gary also lead the company’s supplier diversity initiatives.

Prior to this role, Gary served in a variety of executive level procurement positions at UPS. Before that, he was a Region Controller in the Midwest, District Controller for Long Island and New York, and an Accounting Manager in Chicago. He began his career with UPS as a loader, unloader and driver before beginning his management career as an Accounting Supervisor in Wisconsin. He has been with UPS for more than 39 years. Gary holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting and Finance from the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire.

In addition to his Procurement responsibilities, Gary currently serves on the board of the National Minority Supplier Diversity Council (NMSDC). He actively supports organization like the U.S. Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce (USPAACC), Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC), and National Urban League, to name a few. Previously he served on the board of directors for Ramapo College of New Jersey. Internally, Gary serves on UPS’s Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Council.

Under his supplier diversity leadership, UPS has received numerous awards, including the Best Corporations for Veteran-Owned Businesses, America’s Top 50 Organizations for Multicultural Business Opportunities, and America’s Top Corporation for Women Business Enterprises from the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council. UPS is one of only three companies to have received this honor for 17 consecutive years.

Mark Wan currently serves as the VP and Head of Strategic Sourcing at Webster Bank in Connecticut, responsible for the end-to-end sourcing strategy and process across all areas of indirect spend, revenue partnerships, and outsourcing. His career spans increasingly senior positions within Procurement and consulting at Morgan Stanley, Guardian Life, and JVKellyGroup, a boutique expense management consulting firm. Previously, Mark worked as a senior consultant to over 1,500 startup small to mid-sized businesses and has served as a speaker with the CPO Exchange, Financial Services Outsourcing Knowledge Exchange, and adjunct lecturer at St. Joseph’s College. He holds a BS in Marketing and MBA in Management and Competitive Strategy from Fordham University.

Greg Schmid is Senior Vice President and Head of Supply Chain Management at Wells Fargo & Company. In this role, Greg is responsible for enterprise expense reduction strategies, overseeing supplier negotiations, mitigating third party risk, and leading the company’s global source-to-settle procurement strategy. In support of social responsibility initiatives, Greg leads Wells Fargo’s commitment to supplier diversity by integrating certified diverse suppliers into strategic sourcing activities, connecting with communities through outreach programs, and supporting environmental sustainability initiatives.

Joining Wells Fargo in 2000, Greg became involved in the company’s initial strategic sourcing effort and has been instrumental in building Wells Fargo’s current supply chain capabilities. Prior to joining Wells Fargo, Greg held various supply chain and engineering positions in aerospace, industrial automation, and automotive industries.

Greg earned his bachelor’s degree in engineering from Michigan State University and his master’s degree from Keller Graduate School of Management in Phoenix, Arizona.

Mark has more than 20 years of procurement and operations experience in various industries, including telecommunications, retail and media and entertainment.

His responsibilities at Windstream include leadership of the procurement function, managing more than $1 billion in annual spend, the supply chain organization, corporate real estate, fleet and facilities. He joined Windstream from Alix Partners where he led large cost reduction and capability building engagements for publicly and privately-held companies.

Prior to working at Alix Partners, Mark served as AARP’s first Chief Procurement Officer where he transformed a purchasing organization into a true procurement function that leveraged category management, annual sourcing plans and common-sense policies and processes that balanced the need for speed and efficiency in business operations with appropriate competitive bid thresholds and controls.

Earlier in his career, Mark was VP of Procurement and Business Services at L Brands, owners of Victoria’s Secret and Bath and Body Works, where he led a global procurement team managing over $1 billion in annual expenditures. He also served as a Director of Strategic Sourcing for C&S Wholesale Grocers, a $20 billion privately-held company, where he built the non-merchandise procurement department from the ground up.

Out of business school, Mark was a procurement and supply chain consultant at Accenture and Capgemini Ernst and Young, where he helped companies like Time Warner and 7-11 implement centralized procurement organizations, e-procurement technologies, sourcing processes and cost management programs.

Mark has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Prior to graduate school, he served on active duty as a Naval Intelligence Officer.

George Sloan leads AT&T’s Global Business and Operations Supply Chain Organization responsible for $20B in spend across Network, IT, and Enterprise Sales, including Cell Site Equipment and Construction, Cloud Data Centers, and International Support. Previously, George led AT&T’s Consumer Supply Chain team responsible for the procurement and logistics of mobility devices, DSL, and Uverse customer premise equipment and the procurement of over $15B in G&A. He led the Cingular merger integration for AT&T Wireless’ supply chain and the supplier diversity initiatives at both AT&T Wireless and Cingular. His career has included manufacturing & quality roles for NCR, AT&T Wireless, Cingular, and now AT&T.

George received his MBA from Michigan State and BS from the University of Michigan. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children.

Mike Fath has recently retired as Senior Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer for Caesars Entertainment Corporation where he lead a team responsible for negotiations, contracting and all components of the supply chain for the nearly $3.0 billion in goods and services required to support Caeasers owned and managed hotels and casinos in North America and around the world.

Mike’s team of 350 people were responsible to contract and buy everything from food, beverage and hospitality products, to Gaming Equipment and supplies, to Media, advertising, promotional products and print, to professional services, (including legal services), information technology, facilities equipment and maintenance services and construction.

Mike lead Caesars Entertainment’s commitment to the diverse communities where it does business by procuring goods, products and services from a diversified pool of suppliers, contractors and professional service providers, and working with small local businesses to help them grow.

Prior to Caesars, Mike served as SVP of Procurement at First Group America, the largest transport operator in North America, operating 50,000 school buses under the brand First Student as well as owning Greyhound. While at FGA, Mike led the integration of sourcing and supply chain operations after the 2007 acquisition of Laidlaw doubled the size of the North American business.

Before joining First Group, Mike was a consulting partner with KPMG. Elected to the partnership in 1994, he was a leader in the firm’s Supply Chain consulting practice in North America.

Mike has a Master of Business Administration, from Michigan State University and earned his undergraduate degree from Capital University in Columbus, Ohio.

DK has 28 years of leadership experience in industrial/energy management, consumer product, technology, auto, and power equipment manufacturing environment with direct experience in engineering and supply chain including procurement (direct and indirect), logistics, supply-demand, inventory management, and operations.

DK is currently a Chief Purchasing Officer for the Schneider Electric with a global procurement responsibility of $15B spend. He has been with Schneider Electric since August 2014.

Prior to his current position at Schneider Electric, DK spent eight years at ConAgra Foods as a CPO and had the responsibility of enterprise procurement with $10B global spend. Prior to this, he spent three years at Motorola where he held the roles of senior executive in Procurement. He was the Vice President of Procurement for the Motorola’s Mobile Devices Group and had the responsibility of $12B Sourcing for the cell phone business. DK was also the Vice President with Motorola’s Global Procurement function with the responsibilities of Indirect Global Sourcing with $6.0B+ spend.

Before joining Motorola in 2003, DK spent 15 years with IBM Corp in many different leadership roles including product development, engineering, logistics, supply/demand, inventory mgmt, and Global Procurement. His last responsibilities at IBM included managing Global Services Procurement with significant responsibilities.

DK has a Master’s in Industrial Engineering, a BS in Mechanical Engineering and has been a registered Professional Engineer (PE). He has published many articles related to manufacturing and supply-chain in external and internal journals. He has been on the Advisory Board for Resin Technology, NMSDC (National Minority Supplier Development Council) and works closely with USPAACC.

Stephane entered the hospitality industry in 1990 and has a degree in Hotel Business Administration. His career began with Holiday Inn and later he joined the Ramada/ Renaissance group to set up their purchasing department in Eschborn (Germany) covering EMEA. In 1997, Stephane was named Regional Director of Procurement for Continental Europe, overseeing Marriott’s procurement operations to drive margins optimization from contract programs and provide services and savings to our regional teams and owners. In 2002 Stephane was promoted to Vice President International Procurement, managing successfully procurement functions in London, Dubai, Shanghai, Sydney, Bangkok, Eschborn, Paris, Cap Town, Hong Kong and Mumbai. He was responsible for assisting our hotels to maximize buying leverage, providing support to ensure compliance and monitoring service levels of vendors.

As the leader of the Global Procurement Team, Stephane who is a 23-year veteran with Marriott, successfully led the team through the Starwood hotels acquisition, which added ,500 hotels to the 4,000 already supported by the team.

In 2017 Stephane was promoted to Senior Vice President and continues to develop opportunities by leading a team to manage and deploy global key procurement initiatives and strategies including an EProcurement tool which is scalable, environmentally responsible, increases synergies between domestic and international contacts and advances global supplier diversity.

Grace Puma Whiteford is senior vice president & chief procurement officer of PepsiCo. In its global portfolio of food and beverage brands, PepsiCo has 22 different brands that generate more than $1 billion each in annual retail sales. PepsiCo’s main businesses include Quaker, Tropicana, Gatorade, Frito-Lay and Pepsi-Cola. With annual net revenues of more than $65 billion, PepsiCo makes hundreds of enjoyable foods and beverages that are loved throughout the world.

Puma joined PepsiCo in 2010. She is responsible for leading the company’s Global Procurement Function, including ensuring quality along the supply chain, robust commodity risk management practices, best in class productivity delivery and innovation via supplier partnerships and technologies. Her team manages the company’s ~ $30 billion global purchases spend.

Prior to joining PepsiCo, Puma worked for United Airlines (UA), where she served as senior vice president, Chief Procurement Officer since 2007. She led the transformation of UA’s procurement organization to a global Strategic Sourcing function with an enterprise-wide scope. Puma and her team delivered significant savings across the value chain, while effectively handling risk management through the jet fuel crises in 2008.

Before joining UA, she led key areas of Strategic Supply Management globally at Kraft Foods, including raw materials, packaging, indirect materials and services. Puma rose to positions of increasing responsibility at Kraft from 1999 to 2007. She also worked in Strategic Supply Management at Motorola and Gillette.

Puma is based in Purchase, N.Y.

After graduating University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire with a major in comprehensive public accounting, Gary joined the United Parcel Service (UPS) and continued to advance his career until retiring as Chief Procurement Officer. Gary oversaw the entire Source-to-Process and implemented UPS's first Recovery Audit services. Currently Gary serves as PRGX's CPO in Residence.

As the Chief Procurement Officer for UPS, Gary Kallenbach and his team managed all indirect and enterprise-wide complex commodities, including system technologies (hardware and software), professional services, energy and fuel purchases (diesel, air, LNG, propane). In addition, he was responsible for the UPS procure-to-pay process redesign and strategy. Gary also lead the company’s supplier diversity initiatives.

Prior to this role, Gary served in a variety of executive level procurement positions at UPS. Before that, he was a Region Controller in the Midwest, District Controller for Long Island and New York, and an Accounting Manager in Chicago. He began his career with UPS as a loader, unloader and driver before beginning his management career as an Accounting Supervisor in Wisconsin. He has been with UPS for more than 39 years. Gary holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting and Finance from the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire.

In addition to his Procurement responsibilities, Gary currently serves on the board of the National Minority Supplier Diversity Council (NMSDC). He actively supports organization like the U.S. Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce (USPAACC), Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC), and National Urban League, to name a few. Previously he served on the board of directors for Ramapo College of New Jersey. Internally, Gary serves on UPS’s Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Council.

Under his supplier diversity leadership, UPS has received numerous awards, including the Best Corporations for Veteran-Owned Businesses, America’s Top 50 Organizations for Multicultural Business Opportunities, and America’s Top Corporation for Women Business Enterprises from the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council. UPS is one of only three companies to have received this honor for 17 consecutive years.

As Executive Vice President at MetaProcure, Roy Anderson is working with the next generation Supply Chain leader who wants to eliminate transactional activity from their organization and enable their team to drive internal customer partnerships, improve supplier management and build supplier innovation. A MetaProcure partnership implements spend analytics, procure to pay tools, catalog creation, reverse auctions, and provides reporting, strategic sourcing, and category expertise with the common goal to become a strategic partner with internal customers.

Roy is the former Chief Procurement Officer of State Street Bank and Vice President of Global Procurement for MetLife where he led the transformation to an automated, strategic, high performing global solution with operations in the US, India, Korea, and Mexico. Prior to joining MetLife, he worked as the Director of Purchasing at John Hancock Financial Services during its demutualization and the Director of Purchasing Operations at Fidelity Investments. He has also worked as Purchasing Manager in commercial and military manufacturing facilities for Textron Corporation and Raytheon Company.

Roy holds a B.S and a MBA from Babson College of Wellesley, Massachusetts.

George Sloan leads AT&T’s Global Business and Operations Supply Chain Organization responsible for $20B in spend across Network, IT, and Enterprise Sales, including Cell Site Equipment and Construction, Cloud Data Centers, and International Support. Previously, George led AT&T’s Consumer Supply Chain team responsible for the procurement and logistics of mobility devices, DSL, and Uverse customer premise equipment and the procurement of over $15B in G&A. He led the Cingular merger integration for AT&T Wireless’ supply chain and the supplier diversity initiatives at both AT&T Wireless and Cingular. His career has included manufacturing & quality roles for NCR, AT&T Wireless, Cingular, and now AT&T.

George received his MBA from Michigan State and BS from the University of Michigan. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children.

DK has 28 years of leadership experience in industrial/energy management, consumer product, technology, auto, and power equipment manufacturing environment with direct experience in engineering and supply chain including procurement (direct and indirect), logistics, supply-demand, inventory management, and operations.

DK is currently a Chief Purchasing Officer for the Schneider Electric with a global procurement responsibility of $15B spend. He has been with Schneider Electric since August 2014.

Prior to his current position at Schneider Electric, DK spent eight years at ConAgra Foods as a CPO and had the responsibility of enterprise procurement with $10B global spend. Prior to this, he spent three years at Motorola where he held the roles of senior executive in Procurement. He was the Vice President of Procurement for the Motorola’s Mobile Devices Group and had the responsibility of $12B Sourcing for the cell phone business. DK was also the Vice President with Motorola’s Global Procurement function with the responsibilities of Indirect Global Sourcing with $6.0B+ spend.

Before joining Motorola in 2003, DK spent 15 years with IBM Corp in many different leadership roles including product development, engineering, logistics, supply/demand, inventory mgmt, and Global Procurement. His last responsibilities at IBM included managing Global Services Procurement with significant responsibilities.

DK has a Master’s in Industrial Engineering, a BS in Mechanical Engineering and has been a registered Professional Engineer (PE). He has published many articles related to manufacturing and supply-chain in external and internal journals. He has been on the Advisory Board for Resin Technology, NMSDC (National Minority Supplier Development Council) and works closely with USPAACC.

Anne Hanch started her Hyatt career as a college freshman in 1982. After completing several internships and the Corporate Management Trainee program in 1985, Anne held various positions in Rooms, Food and Beverage and Catering and Convention Services while working at seventeen Hyatt Hotel properties. Anne was AVP of Catering and Convention services for 6 years prior to being promoted in 1999 to Vice President of Purchasing. Anne has overseen over 600 renovations and new construction projects, as well as overseeing Hyatt’s contracts for operating spend and services.

Anne was integral in formation of Avendra in 2000 and has served on the Advisory Board for the past 12 years. Anne has also served on Hyatt’s Diversity and Inclusion Council since 2001.

Anne holds a B.S. degree in Business and Engineering from Purdue University.

Sheila Tierney joined Ingersoll Rand in March 2010 as Vice President, Global Procurement. Ingersoll Rand is a $14billion world leader in creating and sustaining safe, comfortable and efficient environments whose family of brands include Club Car®, Hussmann®, Ingersoll Rand®, Schlage®, Thermo King® and Trane®. Sheila’s responsibilities are global including managing an $8B direct and indirect material spend, and leading Logistics and Supplier Quality and Development for the organization. Prior to Ingersoll Rand, Sheila was the General Manager of Strategic Sourcing for General Electric and, prior to GE, had a 10-year career with Navistar culminating in her role as Vice President, Purchasing and Logistics. Sheila has a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, and a Masters in Business Administration from Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management. She is the executive sponsor of Ingersoll Rand’s Women’s Network, an organization committed to developing an environment that values, attracts and cultivates the diverse talents of leaders.

Stephane entered the hospitality industry in 1990 and has a degree in Hotel Business Administration. His career began with Holiday Inn and later he joined the Ramada/ Renaissance group to set up their purchasing department in Eschborn (Germany) covering EMEA. In 1997, Stephane was named Regional Director of Procurement for Continental Europe, overseeing Marriott’s procurement operations to drive margins optimization from contract programs and provide services and savings to our regional teams and owners. In 2002 Stephane was promoted to Vice President International Procurement, managing successfully procurement functions in London, Dubai, Shanghai, Sydney, Bangkok, Eschborn, Paris, Cap Town, Hong Kong and Mumbai. He was responsible for assisting our hotels to maximize buying leverage, providing support to ensure compliance and monitoring service levels of vendors.

As the leader of the Global Procurement Team, Stephane who is a 23-year veteran with Marriott, successfully led the team through the Starwood hotels acquisition, which added ,500 hotels to the 4,000 already supported by the team.

In 2017 Stephane was promoted to Senior Vice President and continues to develop opportunities by leading a team to manage and deploy global key procurement initiatives and strategies including an EProcurement tool which is scalable, environmentally responsible, increases synergies between domestic and international contacts and advances global supplier diversity.

After graduating University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire with a major in comprehensive public accounting, Gary joined the United Parcel Service (UPS) and continued to advance his career until retiring as Chief Procurement Officer. Gary oversaw the entire Source-to-Process and implemented UPS's first Recovery Audit services. Currently Gary serves as PRGX's CPO in Residence.

As the Chief Procurement Officer for UPS, Gary Kallenbach and his team managed all indirect and enterprise-wide complex commodities, including system technologies (hardware and software), professional services, energy and fuel purchases (diesel, air, LNG, propane). In addition, he was responsible for the UPS procure-to-pay process redesign and strategy. Gary also lead the company’s supplier diversity initiatives.

Prior to this role, Gary served in a variety of executive level procurement positions at UPS. Before that, he was a Region Controller in the Midwest, District Controller for Long Island and New York, and an Accounting Manager in Chicago. He began his career with UPS as a loader, unloader and driver before beginning his management career as an Accounting Supervisor in Wisconsin. He has been with UPS for more than 39 years. Gary holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting and Finance from the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire.

In addition to his Procurement responsibilities, Gary currently serves on the board of the National Minority Supplier Diversity Council (NMSDC). He actively supports organization like the U.S. Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce (USPAACC), Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC), and National Urban League, to name a few. Previously he served on the board of directors for Ramapo College of New Jersey. Internally, Gary serves on UPS’s Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Council.

Under his supplier diversity leadership, UPS has received numerous awards, including the Best Corporations for Veteran-Owned Businesses, America’s Top 50 Organizations for Multicultural Business Opportunities, and America’s Top Corporation for Women Business Enterprises from the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council. UPS is one of only three companies to have received this honor for 17 consecutive years.

Michael Cooper has been with Disney Parks and Resorts for the total of 13 years and in the position of a Director of Procurement and Sourcing for 11 years. Prior to coming to Disney, he was Purchasing Manager at the All American Gourmet Co. as well as at Nestle USA. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Finance and Management from the University of Utah.

As Executive Vice President at MetaProcure, Roy Anderson is working with the next generation Supply Chain leader who wants to eliminate transactional activity from their organization and enable their team to drive internal customer partnerships, improve supplier management and build supplier innovation. A MetaProcure partnership implements spend analytics, procure to pay tools, catalog creation, reverse auctions, and provides reporting, strategic sourcing, and category expertise with the common goal to become a strategic partner with internal customers.

Roy is the former Chief Procurement Officer of State Street Bank and Vice President of Global Procurement for MetLife where he led the transformation to an automated, strategic, high performing global solution with operations in the US, India, Korea, and Mexico. Prior to joining MetLife, he worked as the Director of Purchasing at John Hancock Financial Services during its demutualization and the Director of Purchasing Operations at Fidelity Investments. He has also worked as Purchasing Manager in commercial and military manufacturing facilities for Textron Corporation and Raytheon Company.

Roy holds a B.S and a MBA from Babson College of Wellesley, Massachusetts.

Jill Bossi, C.P.M. serves The American Red Cross as Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer. She is responsible for managing all Supply Chain, Real Estate and Travel related services for the Red Cross. Since joining the American Red Cross in October, 2009, Ms. Bossi has redesigned the supply chain, implemented new policies and procedures, streamlined the purchase of goods and services by the organization across the Red Cross’ entire footprint in the United States and its seven territories. She has implemented a supplier management program and helped to establish their growing supplier diversity program; making it a model in the non profit sector. Partnering with Ariba, Ms. Bossi is implementing a new procure to pay system across the American Red Cross footprint to be used for disasters, for blood drives and for day to day operations. This is issuing in a new era of online ordering and supply chain management for the Red Cross and the nonprofit sector.

Prior to the Red Cross, Ms. Bossi was the Senior Vice President and Sourcing Executive for Global Commercial Banking and Global Wealth Management at Bank of America. While at Bank of America Ms. Bossi was instrumental in the redesign of the entire supply chain management function for the Bank. During her career, Ms. Bossi has also served as C.P.O. for Experian North America, one of the three largest credit reporting agencies in the U.S., as Director of G&A Procurement for Verizon Wireless having served as a key member of the supply management team during the formation of the company through the merger of GTE, Bell Atlantic and AirTouch Communications. Ms. Bossi has held senior supply management roles with companies as diverse as Packard Bell NEC, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios. She holds a BS in Business Management and has been published in many supply chain journals publications. Ms. Bossi is a sought after national, regional, and local conference speaker. She is a member of the Institute for Supply Management, serves as a contributor for the ISM’s Report On Business® , on the ISM Women’s Executive Supply Management Steering Committee and the ISM Committee for Sustainability and Social Responsibility. Ms. Bossi also is a member of the board for the National Minority Supplier Diversity Council and the CPO Advisory Board for WBENC (Women’s Business Enterprise Network Council).

Mark has more than 20 years of procurement and operations experience in various industries, including telecommunications, retail and media and entertainment.

His responsibilities at Windstream include leadership of the procurement function, managing more than $1 billion in annual spend, the supply chain organization, corporate real estate, fleet and facilities. He joined Windstream from Alix Partners where he led large cost reduction and capability building engagements for publicly and privately-held companies.

Prior to working at Alix Partners, Mark served as AARP’s first Chief Procurement Officer where he transformed a purchasing organization into a true procurement function that leveraged category management, annual sourcing plans and common-sense policies and processes that balanced the need for speed and efficiency in business operations with appropriate competitive bid thresholds and controls.

Earlier in his career, Mark was VP of Procurement and Business Services at L Brands, owners of Victoria’s Secret and Bath and Body Works, where he led a global procurement team managing over $1 billion in annual expenditures. He also served as a Director of Strategic Sourcing for C&S Wholesale Grocers, a $20 billion privately-held company, where he built the non-merchandise procurement department from the ground up.

Out of business school, Mark was a procurement and supply chain consultant at Accenture and Capgemini Ernst and Young, where he helped companies like Time Warner and 7-11 implement centralized procurement organizations, e-procurement technologies, sourcing processes and cost management programs.

Mark has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Prior to graduate school, he served on active duty as a Naval Intelligence Officer.

Peter Kiriacoulacos, Chief Procurement Officer and Executive Vice President – Comcast Cable/SVP NBCUniversal. As the Chief Procurement Officer of Comcast Cable and NBCUniversal, Mr. Kiriacoulacos will be responsible for the combined procurement function and will lead material and enterprise-wide capital and operating expense-based vendor negotiations, including overseeing supplier diversity initiatives, among many other areas.

Some of Kiriacoulacos’ key achievements over the past few years at Comcast include the renegotiation of hundreds of material contracts with an associated spend value in the billions of dollars, rationalizing Comcast’s supplier portfolio creating a healthy level of competition, as well as implementing mature procurement governance and control via the implementation of an automated centralized cost control policy and electronic workflow system. Also worth noting is Kiriacoulacos’ achievement of building a best-in-class procurement operation.

Prior to joining Comcast nearly 5 years ago, Mr. Kiriacoulacos served as Vice President of Global Procurement at Liberty Global Inc. and resided in Europe. He also has over 17 years of experience in multi-national environments, holding the position of Vice President of Corporate Procurement and Strategic Partnerships at Amsterdam based companies United Global Communications Europe and United Pan-Europe Communications, as well as serving as Senior Manager at Nolan, Norton and Co. in Melbourne where he managed the process of some of Australia’s largest outsourcing contracts from inception to execution.

Mr. Kiriacoulacos holds a Bachelor of Science and post-graduate degrees in Commerce from the University of South Australia, Adelaide. He also serves as a National Trustee Board Member for the Boys and Girls Clubs of America.

George Sloan leads AT&T’s Global Business and Operations Supply Chain Organization responsible for $20B in spend across Network, IT, and Enterprise Sales, including Cell Site Equipment and Construction, Cloud Data Centers, and International Support. Previously, George led AT&T’s Consumer Supply Chain team responsible for the procurement and logistics of mobility devices, DSL, and Uverse customer premise equipment and the procurement of over $15B in G&A. He led the Cingular merger integration for AT&T Wireless’ supply chain and the supplier diversity initiatives at both AT&T Wireless and Cingular. His career has included manufacturing & quality roles for NCR, AT&T Wireless, Cingular, and now AT&T.

George received his MBA from Michigan State and BS from the University of Michigan. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children.

Stephane entered the hospitality industry in 1990 and has a degree in Hotel Business Administration. His career began with Holiday Inn and later he joined the Ramada/ Renaissance group to set up their purchasing department in Eschborn (Germany) covering EMEA. In 1997, Stephane was named Regional Director of Procurement for Continental Europe, overseeing Marriott’s procurement operations to drive margins optimization from contract programs and provide services and savings to our regional teams and owners. In 2002 Stephane was promoted to Vice President International Procurement, managing successfully procurement functions in London, Dubai, Shanghai, Sydney, Bangkok, Eschborn, Paris, Cap Town, Hong Kong and Mumbai. He was responsible for assisting our hotels to maximize buying leverage, providing support to ensure compliance and monitoring service levels of vendors.

As the leader of the Global Procurement Team, Stephane who is a 23-year veteran with Marriott, successfully led the team through the Starwood hotels acquisition, which added ,500 hotels to the 4,000 already supported by the team.

In 2017 Stephane was promoted to Senior Vice President and continues to develop opportunities by leading a team to manage and deploy global key procurement initiatives and strategies including an EProcurement tool which is scalable, environmentally responsible, increases synergies between domestic and international contacts and advances global supplier diversity.

Charlie Lousignont joined ARAMARK in 2009 and currently serves as Vice President, Supply Chain Management, for ARAMARK North American Food and Hospitality Services. In this role, his responsibilities include Distribution, Operations Support as well Facilities, Regional, and Indirect Spend activities for all ARAMARK North American Food and Hospitality Services.

Prior to his career with ARAMARK he was Chief Procurement Officer for Centralized Supply Chain Services, LLC, the Purchasing Cooperative for Applebee’s and IHOP Restaurant Chains from 2006 to 2009. In that role, Charlie led the Procurement function for 3400 restaurant locations and managed spend of over $2.5 BB. From 1994-2006, he was Vice President, Product Development and Procurement for Fazoli’s Restaurants. Charlie has also held procurement positions with Long John Silver’s (Sr. Director of Purchasing & Distribution), Burger King (Regional Procurement Manager) and S&A Restaurants (Director of Purchasing). He began his career with Darden Restaurants as a corporate accountant until his promotion to North Atlantic Seafood Buyer for Red Lobster restaurants.

Charlie received his BS in Finance from the University of Central Florida and his Master of Business Administration from the University of Miami (FL). He and his wife Kathy reside in Moorestown, NJ and have 3 children.

Gregg Waterman received an Electrical Engineering degree from The University of Connecticut and began his career with Coca-Cola immediately after college. He spent the first ten years in operations in advancing leadership roles at various bottling facilities, eventually becoming the operations manager at the East Hartford Connecticut facility. Gregg moved to Atlanta to then begin the next phase of his career in procurement, developing and implementing the first national MRO program for all of Coca-Cola Enterprises ~500 facilities. He then moved to Europe with his family where he took on responsibility for the procurement of all plastic closures and bottles for Coca-Cola Enterprises European operations, covering England, Belgium, France, Luxemburg and the Netherlands. Upon returning to the US he took over the procurement of plastic resins and bottles for all of North America at Coca-Cola Bottlers’ Sales and Services LLC. Today Gregg is the Vice President of Procurement for Coca-Cola Refreshments and leads the team responsible for all Indirect Goods and Services for North America along with having responsibility for the global Coca-Cola G&A spend.

As Executive Vice President at MetaProcure, Roy Anderson is working with the next generation Supply Chain leader who wants to eliminate transactional activity from their organization and enable their team to drive internal customer partnerships, improve supplier management and build supplier innovation. A MetaProcure partnership implements spend analytics, procure to pay tools, catalog creation, reverse auctions, and provides reporting, strategic sourcing, and category expertise with the common goal to become a strategic partner with internal customers.

Roy is the former Chief Procurement Officer of State Street Bank and Vice President of Global Procurement for MetLife where he led the transformation to an automated, strategic, high performing global solution with operations in the US, India, Korea, and Mexico. Prior to joining MetLife, he worked as the Director of Purchasing at John Hancock Financial Services during its demutualization and the Director of Purchasing Operations at Fidelity Investments. He has also worked as Purchasing Manager in commercial and military manufacturing facilities for Textron Corporation and Raytheon Company.

Roy holds a B.S and a MBA from Babson College of Wellesley, Massachusetts.

Jill Bossi, C.P.M. serves The American Red Cross as Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer. She is responsible for managing all Supply Chain, Real Estate and Travel related services for the Red Cross. Since joining the American Red Cross in October, 2009, Ms. Bossi has redesigned the supply chain, implemented new policies and procedures, streamlined the purchase of goods and services by the organization across the Red Cross’ entire footprint in the United States and its seven territories. She has implemented a supplier management program and helped to establish their growing supplier diversity program; making it a model in the non profit sector. Partnering with Ariba, Ms. Bossi is implementing a new procure to pay system across the American Red Cross footprint to be used for disasters, for blood drives and for day to day operations. This is issuing in a new era of online ordering and supply chain management for the Red Cross and the nonprofit sector.

Prior to the Red Cross, Ms. Bossi was the Senior Vice President and Sourcing Executive for Global Commercial Banking and Global Wealth Management at Bank of America. While at Bank of America Ms. Bossi was instrumental in the redesign of the entire supply chain management function for the Bank. During her career, Ms. Bossi has also served as C.P.O. for Experian North America, one of the three largest credit reporting agencies in the U.S., as Director of G&A Procurement for Verizon Wireless having served as a key member of the supply management team during the formation of the company through the merger of GTE, Bell Atlantic and AirTouch Communications. Ms. Bossi has held senior supply management roles with companies as diverse as Packard Bell NEC, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios. She holds a BS in Business Management and has been published in many supply chain journals publications. Ms. Bossi is a sought after national, regional, and local conference speaker. She is a member of the Institute for Supply Management, serves as a contributor for the ISM’s Report On Business® , on the ISM Women’s Executive Supply Management Steering Committee and the ISM Committee for Sustainability and Social Responsibility. Ms. Bossi also is a member of the board for the National Minority Supplier Diversity Council and the CPO Advisory Board for WBENC (Women’s Business Enterprise Network Council).

Grace Puma Whiteford is senior vice president & chief procurement officer of PepsiCo. In its global portfolio of food and beverage brands, PepsiCo has 22 different brands that generate more than $1 billion each in annual retail sales. PepsiCo’s main businesses include Quaker, Tropicana, Gatorade, Frito-Lay and Pepsi-Cola. With annual net revenues of more than $65 billion, PepsiCo makes hundreds of enjoyable foods and beverages that are loved throughout the world.

Puma joined PepsiCo in 2010. She is responsible for leading the company’s Global Procurement Function, including ensuring quality along the supply chain, robust commodity risk management practices, best in class productivity delivery and innovation via supplier partnerships and technologies. Her team manages the company’s ~ $30 billion global purchases spend.

Prior to joining PepsiCo, Puma worked for United Airlines (UA), where she served as senior vice president, Chief Procurement Officer since 2007. She led the transformation of UA’s procurement organization to a global Strategic Sourcing function with an enterprise-wide scope. Puma and her team delivered significant savings across the value chain, while effectively handling risk management through the jet fuel crises in 2008.

Before joining UA, she led key areas of Strategic Supply Management globally at Kraft Foods, including raw materials, packaging, indirect materials and services. Puma rose to positions of increasing responsibility at Kraft from 1999 to 2007. She also worked in Strategic Supply Management at Motorola and Gillette.

Puma is based in Purchase, N.Y.

Guided by his desire to improve customer experiences and his entrepreneurial talents, Andy has become one of the leaders in the service and support outsourcing industry. Andy ventured on his own early in his career. He conceptualized and developed one of the original cloud-based Software-as-a-Service customer contact management applications that integrated contact center operations, returns management, and e-commerce. In 1999, he founded Alorica, which is one of the largest Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) providers of customer management solutions, to create efficient and customer-centric solutions for companies. Andy’s founding belief in developing and utilizing technology to improve customer experience and drive efficiency has resulted in Alorica’s being on the forefront of innovation within the industry.

Andy’s success has earned the company numerous awards and accolades including the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Award, placement on Software Magazine’s annual list of the 500 largest software and service suppliers, and multiple CRM Excellence Awards from Customer Interaction Solutions Magazine. He was a recipient of the 2010 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the Financial and Business Services category.

Andy has also served as an executive at Advanced Membrane Technology, CTX Data Services, and Gateway. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Finance from the University of Southern California.

Hiten Patel is the Founder and Chairman of Collabera – consistently ranked as one the fastest growing IT services companies in the U.S. Since 1996, Hiten’s aggressive, customer-driven focus on Fortune 100 clients, has steered the company to its present size of 19 offices, 3 development centers and more than 6000 employees globally. Under his vision and guidance Collabera has evolved from a staffing firm to a total turnkey solutions provider with a Collaborative Delivery model that spans onsite, offsite and offshore capabilities.

Under Hiten, Collabera has received numerous accolades like ‘Fast 50 company’ for five years from Deloitte and Touche, Regional Supplier of the Year by NMSDC and a listing by Inc. magazine as one of the Top 500 companies in the USA for three years in a row. Hiten himself has been awarded ‘Entrepreneur award of the Year by Ernst & Young’ in 2000 and was a finalist for the same award in 2007.

Hiten is associated with various organizations including EO of NJ, AAHC, NACCB, TiE Tri-State, USPAACC, Association for Corporate Growth of New Jersey, New Jersey Technology Council, National Minority Supplier Development Council, New Jersey Chamber of Commerce and Morris County Chamber of Commerce.

William Wang CEO and founder of VIZIO, Inc. was born in Taiwan and relocated to the US with his family at the age of 12. He graduated from USC with an Engineering degree and has started and sold several of his businesses and is a great example of a “visionary serial entrepreneur.” In 2002 his family and a close group of friends and former investors founded VIZIO. William’s success has gained the brand numerous awards including Good Housekeeping’s Best Big-Screens, CNET’s Top 10 Holiday Gifts to mention a few and has guided VIZIO into the #1 brand of HDTVs in the U.S. Recently, VIZIO has won the #1 Ranking in the Inc. 500 for Top Companies in Computers and Electronics for the 2nd consecutive year, Ad Age’s Hottest Brands of 2009, Fast Company’s Top 10 Most Innovative CE Companies along with Walmart’s Supplier of the Year awards. Personal awards include Ernst & Young’s and The Orange County Business Journal’s Entrepreneur of the Year honors.